FISHING FROG. 



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. 



