WEAVERS AND FROG-FISHES 



625 



Photo if W. Savillt-Ktnt, F.Z.S.] 



SUCKING-FISH 



By means of the sucker on the top of its head this fish attaches itself to ships and larger fishes 



species is declared to be excellent eating. The STAR-GAZER is a particularly ugly-looking fish, 

 especially noteworthy in that the eyes, which are on the top of the head, can be raised 

 and depressed at pleasure, whilst the heavy jaw is armed with a freely moving tentacle, which, 

 waving about in the current of water drawn in at the mouth, serves as a lure to attract small 

 fishes, the rest of the body being concealed between stones at the bottom of the sea. 



The COMMON WEAVER is a well-known British fish, much dreaded on account of the 

 poisonous wounds which it inflicts unless most carefully handled, the poison being introduced 

 by the spines of the back-fin and gill-cover. No special poison-organs seem to be developed, 

 but the mucous secretion around the spines has poisonous properties. As the flesh of this fish 

 is extremely palatable, fishermen remove the spines at once directly after capture. Should a 

 wound be inflicted, great suffering and occasionally death follows. 



Passing over one or two unimportant groups, we come to the family of the FROG-FISHES, 

 which, but for the fact that many of its members are poisonous, calls for no special comment 

 here. One species, however, from the coasts of Central America, possesses the distinction of 

 having the most highly developed poison-organs of any fishes, being equalled only by the 



t httt b } Riinhold Thitlt & Co.] 



79 



[Chamtr) Ian/, (f.C. 



LARGER WEAVER 



The spines of the first back-fin and of the gill-co-ver are highly poison 



