THE FATHER LASHER. 311 



Description Where found. 



THE FATHER LASHER. 



THE head of this fish is armed with very 

 strong and extremely sharp spines, the largest of 

 which are situated on the hind part, and the 

 smallest before. The mouth is large, and the 

 jaws, as well as the roof of the mouth, are beset 

 with very sharp teeth. The body suddenly tapers 

 towards the tail, and instead of scales it is covered' 

 with small sharp-pointed scuta, which render it 

 rough to the touch ; these scuta, or excrescences, 

 are much smaller in the female than in the male. 

 The belly is large, and white in the female; in 

 the male it is yellow, variegated with white. In 

 the latter, the pectoral fins are much larger than 

 in the former, so that the two sexes may easily 

 be distinguished at first sight. The rays of the 

 ventral fins are striped in the female with black 

 and white, but in the male they are of a red flesh 

 color and spotted with white. 



The father lasher is an inhabitant of the Baltic 

 and Northern seas, particularly on the coasts of 

 Greenland, Newfoundland, and Siberia; it is 

 likewise found in the Mediterranean sea. In 

 southern latitudes it is scarcely a foot in length, 

 but in the Norwegian seas, we are informed by 

 Pontoppidan, that it sometimes measures two 

 fathoms. It usually keeps at the bottom, and 

 appears on the surface of the water only when 

 pressed by hunger and in quest of food. It 

 swims with great rapidity by means of its large 

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