I/O P H I U S. 



Lophira Africana of Banks, which is called in English 

 catalogues, " the African scrubby oak," a native of 

 Sierra Leone. It is a beautiful shrub, with terminal 

 corymbs of white flowers, and a one-leaved perma- 

 nent calyx. The leaves are long, entire, and leathery. 



L() PHI US angler, called also fishing-frog, wide- 

 mouth, gaper, seadevil,and a vast variety of other names, 

 a genus of very singularly formed fishes belonging 

 to Cuvier's third family of fishes with spinous tins, 

 namely, those which have the pectoral fins with pe- 

 dicles, or something in the form of feet. They are 

 the most characteristic fishes of the family, and ac- 

 cordingly they are placed at the head of them in the 

 Kegrie Animal. The characters of the genus are, the 

 skeleton partly cartilaginous, and thus approximating 

 to that of the sharks and rays, though the fishes differ 

 from them in many other particulars. The pectoral 

 fins are supported as if on two arms, sustained by two 

 bones, which have some resemblance to the radial and 

 cubital bones of an arm, but which are really the wrist 

 of the fin, which in those fishes is much more pro- 

 duced than in any others. The vcntrals are placed 

 much in advance of the pectorals; the gill covers 

 and gill arches are enveloped under the skin ; and 

 they have no other opening posteriorly but a hole 

 of moderate size for each placed behind the pectoral 

 fin. This structure of the breathing apparatus is 

 also an approximation to the cartilaginous fishes ; 

 and in consequence of the smallness of the gill open- 

 ings, they can live a long time out of the water. They 

 are exceedingly voracious fishes, have very wide 

 mouths, and large stomachs, with great digestive 

 powers, but the intestinal canal is very short. Three 

 genera, or sub-genera, of them are found in Cuvier's 

 great work. The greater part of them are inhabit- 

 ants of the warmer seas, but one species, at least, is 

 by no means uncommon on the British shores, both in 

 the northern and southern parts, in the latter of which 

 especially it often grows to a large size. 



LOFHIUS, properly so called, forms the first sub- 

 genus ; it is the characteristic one ; and the one which 

 is most common on the British shores, though there 

 is another species, or at all events variety, in the 

 European seas. The name lophius, which signifies 

 a feather, or rather perhaps more strictly the shaft of 

 a feather, is applied to these fishes in consequence of 

 some very elongated detached rays, which are situ- 

 ated on the head. The head is of vast size in propor- 

 tion to the rest of the body. It is very broad, but 

 depressed, and armed with spines in many places, 

 which give the fish a most singular appearance. The 

 gape is very wide and far cleft; the jaws are armed 

 with sharp-pointed teeth ; and the under jaw is sur- 

 rounded with a fringe, consisting of a number of de- 

 tached beards or filaments. > There are two distinct 

 dorsal fins ; and upon the head there are three curious 

 rays, one behind the eyes, which may perhaps be con- 

 sidered as a ray of the dorsal fin, and other two more 

 near the extremity of the upper jaw. These consist 

 of spinous 'or bony rays formed internally of bone, 

 flexible, but without any joints in their length, covered 

 for the greater part with the common integuments, 

 and plenteously furnished with nerves. The last and 

 middle one terminates in slender points ; but there is 

 something peculiar in the termination of the first one, 

 for it ends in a little forked penon, or flattened expan- 

 sion of the most sparkling silvery lustre. The arti- 

 culation of those two rays to the bone of the head is 

 equally curious. The posterior one embraces like a 



fork the ridge of the bone ; and thus, though it has 

 a very firm articulation, and a free motion backwards 

 and forwards in the mesial plane, it has comparatively 

 little motion, or in fact none in the cross direction. 

 The anterior one is differently articulated ; for it 

 embraces a loop which is formed on the bone, as if 

 the two were a staple, and the eye of a bolt placed 

 within that staple, so as to have free rsotien in every 

 direction. These bones, though flexible, and par- 

 taking of the cartilaginous texture of the rest of the 

 skeleton, are remarkably strong and also elastic, and 

 they are furnished with a great number of muscles, 

 forming altogether a very fine specimen of animal 

 mechanism. The bases of these curious spines are 

 seated between two spinous ridges, close by the sides 

 of which the eyes are situated, of large size, and 

 directed upwards. ,The integuments covering the 

 gills form two sacs of ample dimensions, which bring 

 the head to a shape very much resembling that of a 

 frog in the tadpole" state ; while the body seen from 

 above, is so narrow in comparison with the head, that 

 it is not unlike the tail of a tadpole ; and the pectoral 

 fins bear some distant resemblance to the young feet 

 of the tadpole in their early stage, and before the 

 tail has disappeared. From the vast size of the head, 

 and capacity of the sacs containing the gills, the pec- 

 torals are thrown to a very considerable distance back- 

 ward, so much behind the ventral fins indeed, that 

 they have the appearance of hind feet, though they 

 really answer to the fore feet of footed animals. 

 Notwithstanding the length and strength of their 

 wrist bones, these fins are riot very efficient in swim- 

 ming. Indeed, as we have often had occasion to 

 remark, the fins of fishes, with the exception of the 

 caudal fin, are useful in directing their motion rather 

 than in producing it. The vast head and compara- 

 tively small caudal fin of these fishes, make them but 

 very slow swimmers ; but the peculiar form of the 

 pectorals, and the very advanced position of the vcn- 

 trals, make them very expert at ascending or descend- 

 ing. They thus command the depth of the water 

 rather than a wide range in lateral extent ; and though 

 their principal habit is that of bottom fishes, they 

 very frequently come to the surface. 



We have already mentioned the circumstance 

 which enables those fishes to live for a considerable 

 time after they are out of the water. Their pectoral 

 fins also enable them to srawl about with more expe- 

 dition than could be expected on the part of a fish, if 

 we did not attend to the very curious structure of 

 these ones. Some of the species which inhabit other 

 seas, especially the muddy inlets from which the 

 water ebbs away, have the power of leaping about 

 like frogs They have attracted attention, at least in 

 that species which is common in the European seas, 

 from the earliest times ; and the oldest naturalists call 

 them indiscriminately by the names of frogs and 

 fishes. 



THE ANGLER (L. piscatorins) is the characteristic 

 species. It is of a uniform brown colour on the upper 

 part of the body, with the membranes of the upper 

 fins of a deeper tint ; and that of the tail still more 

 so. The under part of the body, and the ventral and 

 pectoral fins are of a white colour. The fish is very 

 singular, and far from being attractive in its appear- 

 ance ; but it grows to a large size, and its manners 

 render it an object of considerable interest. It is 

 found in the seas, upon most of the shores of the 

 British islands, aud also in those of the east of Europe, 



