Skries 1. Order 1. ACANTHOPTERYGIL 297 



five feet ; and the extreme hideousness of its appearance has procured it some celebrity. [There are few parts d 

 the muddy shores of the British islands where these ug-ly and voracious fish are not to be met with ; and such is its 

 propensity to keep its g:reat mouth in exercise, that when captured in a net along with other fishes, it speedily 

 begins to swallow its companions, especially if Flounders, which appear to be its favourite food. On some coasts, 

 it is sought for on account of the live fish in its stomach, its own flesh being but small in quantity, and held in 

 little estimation. Another European species, L. palviparus, has its second dorsal lower, and five vertebrae fewer 

 in the spine. 



Chironectes. These have, like the last genera, free rays on the head, of which the first is small, and often 

 terminating by a tuft ; and those behind it are enlarged by a membrane, which is sometimes very broad, and at 

 other times they are united into a fin. Their body and head are compressed, and their mouth opens vertically. 

 Their gill membranes have four rays, and have no opening but a small hole behind the pectorals. Their dorsal 

 extends along the whole back, and they often have cutaneous appendages all over their bodies. They have four 

 gills, a large air-bladder, and a moderate intestine without coeca. They can inflate their great stomach with air, 

 in the same manner as the Tetrodons blow up their bellies like balloons. Ou the ground, their two pairs of fins 

 enable them to crawl along like little quadrupeds ; and the pectorals, in consequence of their position, perform 

 the functions of hind legs. They can live out of the water for two or three days. They are found only in the seas 

 of warm countries, and ^Eneas confounded many of them under the name L. histrio. [In some of the muddy 

 estuaries on the north coast of Australia, from which the tide ebbs far back in the di-j' season, these Frog-fishes 

 are so abundant, and capable of taking such vigorous leaps, that those who have visited the places have, at first 

 sight, taken them for birds.] One might separate the species in which the second and third rays are united into 

 a fin, and sometimes also joined to the other dorsals. 



Malthus. These have the head greatly extended and flattened, principally by the projection- of the sub-opercu- 

 lum; the eyes are forwards ; the snout projecting, with a little horn ; the mouth under the muzzle, of mean size, 

 and protractile ; the gills sustained by six or seven rays, and opening by a hole above each pectoral. They have a 

 simple dorsal, which is soft and small ; and there are no free rays in the head. The body is studded with osseous 

 tubercles, and bordered round with cirri. They have neither cceca nor air-bladder. 



The remaining genus of this family is Batrachus,\\\e Frog-fishes, properly so called. They have the head flattened 

 horizontally, and much larger than the body ; the gape deeply cleft ; the operculum and sub-operculum spinous ; 

 six gill-rays; the ventrals straight, attached under the throat, with only three rays, of which the first is broad and 

 lengthened : the pectorals are carried by a short arm, resulting from an elongation of the carpal bones : their first 

 dorsal is short, supported by three spinous rays; the second is soft and long, and has the anal corresponding to it; 

 their lips are often garnished with filaments ; their stomach is an oblong sac ; their intestines are short, and with- 

 out cceca ; and their air-vessel is anteriorly deeply forked. They lurk in the sand, in order to swallow small 

 fishes, in the same manner as the members of the last genus ; and it is thought that wounds inflicted by their 

 spines are dangerous. They inhabit both oceans. In some, the scales are smooth, and they have a membiane 

 over the eye; others are scaly, and want that membrane. [None of them appear in the authenticated lists of 

 British fishes.] 



THE FOURTEENTH FAMILY OF THE ACANTHOPTERYGIL 



Labrid^ (the Wrasse, or Rock-fish Family). 



This family are easily known by their appearance. They have an oblong body, covered with scales ; 

 and a single dorsal, supported anteriorly by spinous rays, often furnished with membranous laminae. 

 The jaws are covered by fleshy Ups. There are three bones in the pharynx, — two upper ones attached 

 to the cranium, and a large under one. All the three are furnished with teeth, arranged like a pave- 

 ment in some, and pointed, or in laminae, in others ; but generally stronger than is usual in the class 

 of Fishes. Their intestinal canal is either without coeca, or with two small ones; and they have a large 

 and strong air-bladder. They admit of division into various genera and subgenera. 



Labrus, or Lipped — that is, Thick-hpped — Fishes. A very numerous genus, the species of which 

 much resemble each other in their oblong form, and in their double fleshy lips, from which they receive 

 their name. One of these lips adheres immediately to the jaw-bones, ajid the other to the suborbitals. 

 They have thickly-set gills, with five rays. Their conical maxillary teeth (of which the middle and front 

 ones are the largest), and their cylindrical teeth in the pharynx, are arranged like a pavement, — the 

 upper ones with two large plates, and the under with one only, which fits to the others. Their stomach 

 has no cul-de-sac, but is continued in an intestine without coeca, which, after two reduplications, ter- 

 minates in a wide rectum. The air-bladder is single, and strong. There are several subgenera. 



Labnis, properly so called, vulgarly termed "Old Wives of the Sea." They have no spines or notches in the 

 operculum or pre-operculurn, and the operculum and cheek are covered with scales. The lateral line is nearly 

 straight. The European seas furnish several species, which, from variations of colour in the same species, are not 

 easily distinguished from each other. L. maculatus, the Balloon Wrasse, is a foot or eighteen inches long, with 

 twenty or twenty-one spines in the dorsal; blue or greenish above ; white belowi marked all over with yellow, and 



