390 PISCES (OSSEI) ACANTHOPT. [LOPHIUS. 



Brit. Zool. vol. HI. p. 120. pi. 18. Id. (Edit. 1812.) vol. in. p. 159. 

 pi. 21. Fishing-Frog, Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 269. La Baudroyc 

 commune, Cuv. Reg. An. torn. n. p. 251. 



LENGTH. From three to five feet. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Head enormously large, occupying more than 

 one-third of the entire length, broad and very much depressed : body 

 tapering suddenly from behind the pectorals : snout obtuse and rounded ; 

 gape excessively wide; lower jaw considerably the longest, fringed along 

 its edge with numerous short filaments : teeth conical, of various lengths 

 and sizes, numerous and very sharp ; two closely approximating rows in 

 the lower jaw ; the same above, bat more widely separated ; palatines, pha- 

 ryngeans, and middle of the tongue, likewise bristling with teeth : eyes 

 moderate, placed towards the upper part of the head, equally distant from 

 the end of the snout and from each other : orbits above the eyes armed 

 with a number of tooth-like processes, which forming two rows extend 

 backwards to meet on the nape, but do not project through the skin: also 

 two erect spines on each side of the end of the snout : gill-opening in the 

 form of a wide, loose, purse-like cavity immediately beneath the pectorals ; 

 opercle small, not appearing externally : skin every-where soft and naked : 

 above the nose, in front of the eyes, two long erect filamentous processes, 

 one before the other, nearly half the length of the head ; further down the 

 mesial line, and about as far behind the eyes as the above are before them, 

 another single filament about one-fourth shorter ; after the same interval 

 again two others about half the length of the first ones, and a third very 

 short one; these three are sometimes connected at the base by a low 

 membrane, forming a first dorsal; second dorsal commencing after a 

 similar interval taken the third time, of a somewhat semicircular form, 

 its length twice its height and half the length of the head ; membrane 

 enveloping the rays thick and fleshy, extending beyond the fin nearly to 

 the caudal ; this last even : pectorals in a line with the first of the three 

 posterior dorsal filaments, of an oblong form, the rays of equal length, 

 appearing truncated; their length one-third that of the head: anal 

 similar to the second dorsal, but placed a little nearer the caudal: 

 ventrals a little before the pectorals; the distance between them 

 equalling their own length: 



B. 6; D. 21-311 ; A. 9 or 10; C. 7 or 8; P. 24 to 26 ; V. 5. 



(Colours.) All the upper parts brown, inclining to dusky: beneath 

 white. 



Taken occasionally on most parts of the coast. Keeps wholly at the 

 bottom, and is very destructive to other fish. Has no swimming-bladder. 

 Obs. Cuvier speaks of another species belonging to this genus, which 

 may possibly also occur in the British seas. It is principally charac- 

 terized by having the second dorsal less elevated, and only twenty-five 

 vertebrae, the present species having thirty. 



(10.) L. Cornubicus, Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. v. p. 381. Fishing-Frog 

 of Mounts Bay, Borl. Cornw. p. 266. pi. 27. f. 6. Long Angler, 

 Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. p. 123. 



In the opinion of Cuvier this supposed species is only an altered indi- 

 vidual of the common one*. " Found on the shore of Mount's Bay, 

 Aug. 9, 1757." BORL. 



* The same may probably be said of the liana Piscatrijc, figured in Leigh's "Natural History 

 of Lancashire," &c. (p. 186. pi. 6. f. 5.) 



