THE SEA DEVIL. 



93 



FAMILY XXVII. BATRACHIDJE. 



This is a small family of tropical fishes, which feed on the bottom, and includes some species 

 which are naked and others covered with scales. The Batrachus didactylus is sometimes met with 

 in the German Ocean, but more frequently between the coast of Portugal and the Guinea Coast 

 of Africa. It is remarkable for the circumstance that the air-bladder, which is divided into two 

 lateral portions connected by a transverse tube, has but a small internal cavity, owing to the 

 immense development of muscle attached to the sides of each portion of the bladder. 



VKANOSCOPUS SCABEK. 



FAMILY XXVIII. PEDICULATI. 



The Pediculati comprise some of the ugliest of fishes, among which may be instanced such 

 genera as Lophius and Maltlie. In these fishes the carpal bones are prolonged, so as to form a 

 sort of arm for the support of the pectoral fins, which sometimes, as in the genus Malthe, have 

 the aspect of legs, and give the fish a frog-like appearance. In English seas there is only one 

 representative of this remarkable group, the majority of which are tropical. 



THE SEA DEVIL, OR AXGLER.* 



The great breadth of the head and anterior part of the body, no less than its depressed form, 

 gives this fish somewhat the aspect of a gigantic tadpole. It is met with on almost all parts of the 



* Lophius piscatorius. 



