LOPHIUS.] PISCES (OSSEI) ACANTHOPT. 389 



marks arid spots of pale blue, white, yellow, and black, disposed with 

 peculiar elegance, especially about the head and dorsal fin : ventrals 

 dark purple, finely contrasting with the pellucidity and whiteness of the 

 pectorals: throat black." DON. 



Found on many parts of the coast, but seldom in any plenty. Pennant 

 states that it is not unfrequent off Scarborough, where it is taken by the 

 hook in thirty or forty fathoms water. Obs. Both Willugrhby and Bloch 

 represent this species with all the rays of the first dorsal nearly equally 

 elongated. In our British specimens it is only the first ray which is 

 so extraordinarily developed. This circumstance seems to suggest the 

 possibility of their species being different from ours. 



66. C. DracunculuS) Linn. (Sordid Dragonet.) 

 Distance from the end of the snout to the posterior margin 

 of the orbit only half that from the eye to the first dorsal 

 fin-ray : first ray of the first dorsal moderate. 



C. Dracunculus, Linn. Syst. Nat. torn. i. p. 434. Bloch, Ichth. 

 pi. 162. f. 2. Don. Brit. Fish. vol. iv. pi. 84. Turt. Brit. Faun. p. 89. 

 Sordid Dragonet, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. p. 167. pi. 28. Id. 

 (Edit. 1812.) vol. in. p. 224. pi. 32. Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 266. 



LENGTH. From six to eight and a half inches ; rarely more. 



DESCRIPT. {Form.) Differs from the C. Lyra, which it closely resem- 

 bles, in the following particulars : head shorter, and more decidedly tri- 

 angular : eyes removed from the end of the snout by a space equalling 

 not more than once their diameter; the distance from the end of the 

 snout to the posterior margin of the orbit equalling only half the distance 

 from this last point to the first dorsal fin-ray : gape much smaller : lateral 

 line not so strongly marked: first dorsal with the first ray only one- 

 third longer than the second, not prolonged into an extended filament. 

 Number of fin-rays, 



D. 410; A. 10 ; C. 10, and a short one; P. 21 ; V. 1/5. 



(Colours.) Back and sides reddish brown, sometimes cinereous brown, 

 mottled with darker spots ; lower portion of the sides with a faint gloss 

 of metallic gold : beneath white, with the posterior half pellucid : irides 

 pale gold. 



Considered by Neill* and Fleming t as only the female of the last species. 

 This seems, however, hardly probable, from its being of much more fre- 

 quent occurrence than the C. Lyra, invariably smaller, and with the 

 colours very different. Common on most parts of the coast, and, when 

 small, often taken in the shrimp-nets. Is sometimes called a Fox. 



GEN. 32. LOPHIUS, Linn. 

 67- L. piscatorius, Linn. (Common Angler.) 



L. piscatorius, Linn. Syst. Nat. torn. i. p. 402. Bloch, Ichth. pi. 87. 

 Turt. Brit. Faun. p. 115. Don. Brit. Fish. vol. v. pi. 101. Flem. 

 Brit. An. p. 214. Shaw, Nat. Misc. vol. xi. pi. 422. Rana pisca- 

 trix, Will. Hist. Pise. p. 85. tab. E. 1. Common Angler, Penn. 



* Wern. Mem. vol. i. p. 529. t Brit. An. p. 208. 



