COLLECTION OF FISH. 44? 



rius y Com., and the malthe, Cuv. These fishes are 

 too remarkable to be passed over in silence. The 

 European frog-fish (lophius piscatorius , Lin.), in- 

 habits our seas ; it is from 4 to 5 feet long ; the 

 cavity of the gills is very large, while the aper- 

 ture is small, and it can live a long time out of 

 the water. Its skin is without scales, and its pec- 

 toral fins are supported as though it had arms ; 

 the rays on the head are long and moveable ; and 

 they are kept in motion while it lies imbedded 

 in the mud, and thus serve as a bait for the small 

 fish, which, being deceived by the similitude, 

 mistake them for worms, and become a prey to 

 the frog-fish. We have eight species of the ge- 

 nus antennarius, described and figured by M. Cu- 

 vier in the Memoirs of the Museum. They are 

 small fish, whose pectoral fins, supported by a 

 long pedicle, enable them to crawl upon the 

 mud. We have three species of the genus malthe, 

 two of which are very rare ; the third, vulgarly 

 called the sea-bat, inhabits the Atlantic. 



The next family, that of the scomber didece, 

 Cuv., of which we have more than seventy spe- 

 cies, is divided into fourteen genera. The first, 

 which has given the name to the family, has 

 been separated into six sub-genera, ist. The 

 common mackrel (sc. scomber, Lin.), very com- 

 mon in the summer on our coasts. 2d. The 



