FISHING FKCK;. 



273 



" When this fish is taken in a net, its captivity does not 

 destroy its rapacious appetite, but it generally devours some 

 of its fellow-prisoners, which have been taken from the 

 stomach alive, especially Flounders. It is not so much 

 sought after for its own flesh, as for the fish generally to be 

 found in its stomach : thus, though the fishermen reject the 

 fish itself, they do not reject those that the fish has collected." 



" A female examined measured three feet three inches, the 

 breadth across the body at the pectoral fins fifteen inches. 

 Within the teeth, on the lower jaw, is a loose skin of a 

 brown colour, like the back of the fish, forming a sort of bag, 

 which probably assists in preventing the escape of its smaller 

 prey. A male examined was three feet five inches long. 

 When this fish was suspended by the head, the contents 

 of its stomach were readily seen, and I perceived several 

 Cuttle-fish. The sexes are distinctly marked by external 

 appendages, as in some species of Raia" Montagu's MS. 



The number of fin-rays are 



D. III. 12 : P. 20 : V. 5 : A. 8 : C. 8. 



The head is wide, depressed ; the mouth nearly as wide 

 as the head ; lower jaw the longest, bearded or fringed all 

 round the edge ; both jaws armed with numerous teeth of 

 different lengths, conical, sharp, and curving inwards ; teeth 

 also on the palatine bones and tongue ; three elongated 

 unconnected filaments on the upper part of the head, two 

 near the upper lip, one at the nape, all three situated in a 

 depression on the middle line ; eyes large, irides brown, 

 pupil black : pectoral fins broad and rounded at the edge, 

 wide at the base ; branchial pouches in part supported by the 

 six branchiostegous rays. Body narrow compared with the 

 breadth of the head, and tapering gradually to the tail ; vent 

 about the middle of the body ; the whole fish covered with a 

 loose skin. 



VOL. I. T 



