658 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1749. 



GERM, and in the middle sc. Fig. 3 is the figure of the rhinoceros magnified, 

 that the position of" the 1 horns might appear distinct and plain. 



Of the fiana Piscatrix. By James Parsons, M. D., F. R. S. N°49'2, p. 126. 



In some parts of Italy this fish is called rospo; in others bora; and by the 

 Lombards zatto. 



Lophius * ore cirroso. Petrus Artedus. 



d dXicv; (iocTOV, ^XTpxyo; a/i'iuf. Anstot. 



Rana piscatrix, by the following authors, viz. Bellonius, Rondelletius, Sal- 

 vianus, Gesnerus, Charleton, Willoughby, Ray. 



Piscatrix vel marina, by Schonveld; piscatrix vulgaris, by Aldrovand. 



Though this fish is already described by most of the natural historians, yet 

 several of its properties appear to have been overlooked. Dr. P. refers the curious 

 to the general history of this animal, as collected by Gesner ; and to Sir George 

 Ent's account and dissection of him, as delivered by Dr. Charleton, in his Exer- 

 citationes de DifFerentiis et Nominibus Animalium; whose figure of him is 

 copied by Willoughby, with most of the dissertation, and which was probably 

 taken from Salvianus by Dr. Charleton, for the better illustration of Sir George's 

 dissertation. 



This animal is 4 feet 3 inches long, and about \Q inches from side to side in 

 the widest part. His mouth is very wide, and his teeth are set in clusters in 

 both the upper and under jaws, and not in regular rows, as was the common 

 opinion; they are long and small like spikes, moveable, and directed inward, in 

 order to secure his prey from escaping, after he has once laid hold on it. His 

 lower jaw is far longer than his upper, having a large capacity in the skin of the 

 former, to yield according to the bulk of the creature he seizes; for with this 

 jaw, and the external clusters of the teeth of the upper jaw, he holds it fast, 

 while with another inner cartilaginous jaw, the teeth of which correspond with 

 an inner cluster of teeth in the upper, he chews and tears his prey, swallowing 

 it by degrees as he minces it; neither the under jaw, nor external row of the 

 upper, having any share in the mastication at all. 



Though he is said to be of the cartilaginous kind, his head is as bony as that 

 of any fish; having rough spiny ridges, serving as eye-brows. Between these 

 arise 3 black limber twigs ; the anterior is longest, the second shorter, and the 

 next shortest; each having at its extremity a white flat piece, with which, it is 

 said, he allures other fish to approach near enough to seize on them. There are 

 two others less considerable on his back, between those fins or webs, which, in 

 him, must be called humeral webs. 



• Lophius piscaforius. Linn. It is well figured in Pennant's British Zoology, and in Bloch's 

 Ichthyology. 



