40 LOPHIUS OR FISHING-FROG; CHIRONECTES. 



hideous appearance of its monstrous and constantly- open mouth, 

 well armed with teeth, has gained for the Angler the vulgar 

 name of Sea Devil. There are few parts of the British shores 

 where it is not to be occasionally met with ; and when captured 

 in nets along with other fishes, it speedily begins to swallow its 

 companions. On some coasts it is sought for, on account of the 

 live fish in its stomach. In the Museum of the College of Sur- 

 geons in Dublin, there is a skeleton of an Angler, about two feet 

 and a half in length, in the stomach of which is the skeleton of 

 a Cod, two feet long, in whose stomach again are contained 

 the skeletons of two Whitings of the ordinary size, and in the 

 stomach of each Whiting there lay, when it was first examined, 

 numerous half-digested little fishes, which were, however, too 

 small and broken-down to admit of preservation. The Frog- 

 fish, with all these contents, had been taken by the fishermen, 

 and offered for sale in the market as an article of food, without 

 any reference at all to the size of its stomach, which was not at 

 all unusual. The contained fishes must have been all swallowed 

 on the morning on which the Angler was taken ; as they were 

 all, with the exception of the smallest, equally fresh and undi- 

 gested. The Chironectes, or Hand-fish, bears a strong resem- 

 blance to the common Angler in its structure and habits ; but 

 its fins are still more capable of motion, enabling it to walk 

 along the ground almost in the manner of quadrupeds, the 

 ventral fins, however, in consequence of their advanced position, 

 serving as the fore-legs, and the pectoral fins performing the 

 office of hind-legs. In some of the muddy estuaries of the north 

 coast of Australia, from which the tide ebbs far back in the dry 

 season, these Frog-fishes are abundant, and capable of taking 

 such vigorous leaps, that those who have visited these places 

 have, at first sight, mistaken them for birds. Their gill open- 

 ings are very small ; and they can live out of the water for two 

 or three days. They have the faculty of inflating their large 

 stomachs with air, so as to give themselves the form of a bal- 

 loon, in this respect corresponding with the Diodon. 



565. The L ABRIDGE, Wrasse or Rock-fish family, are chiefly 

 remarkable for their thick fleshy lips ; their jaws are armed with 



