438 Fishes. 



sucker, and chiefly remarkable for the singular append- 

 age observable on its head. It possesses similar tenacity 

 of suction. The utility of this faculty .to animals inha- 

 biting the rocky shores and turbulent seas of Greenland 

 is sufficiently obvious. 



THE ANGLEK. (Lopliius piscatorius.) 



THIS extraordinary fish is occasionally met with on our 

 coasts, and is commonly known by the names of the 

 Fishing Frog, Toad Fish, and Sea Devil. In shape it is 

 the most uncouth and unsightly of the piscatory tribe, 

 resembling the frog in its tadpole state. It grows to a 

 large size. A specimen taken in the sea, near Scar- 

 borough, was between four and five feet in length, the 

 head considerably larger than the body, round at the 

 circumference, flat above ; the mouth is of a prodigious 

 size, being a yard in width, and armed with sharp teeth. 

 It lives, as it were, in ambush at the bottom of the 

 sea, and by means of its fins stirs up the mud and sand, 

 so as to conceal itself from other fishes on whom it 

 preys. The manner in which it procures its prey is 

 very extraordinary, the peculiarity of its construction 

 forbidding the possibility of rapid movement. Two long 

 tough filaments are placed above the nose, each of them 

 furnished with a thin appendage, closely resembling 

 a fishing-line when baited and flung out. The back 

 is provided with three others, united by a web, and 

 forming the first dorsal fin. Pliny notices these remark- 

 able appendages, and explains their use. " The Fishing 



