ANGEL-FISH. Sguatina vulgdris. 



The colour is dark leaden grey on the head and back as far as the first dorsal fin, the 

 remainder being reddish yellow with mottlings and cloudings of purple and brown. On 

 the abdomen are irregular spots of vermilion. The chin and sides, of the mouth are 

 white. The average length of a full-grown specimen seems to be about seven or eight 

 feet. In most, if not in all, of these creatures, the female is larger than the male, as is 

 the case with the birds of prey. 



THE dark-skinned, wide-mouthed, leather-firmed and thorn-backed fish which is shown 

 in the illustration, is popularly known throughout many parts of England, France, and 

 Italy by the name of the ANGEL-FISH, a term singularly inappropriate except on the 

 well-known principle " lucus a non lucendo," or perchance as leaving the spectator the 

 option of choosing the kind of angel which the creature is thought to resemble. 



Sooth to say, it is as hideous a fish as is to be found in the waters, and from all 

 accounts is as unprepossessing to the inhabitants of the sea as to those of the land, being 

 voracious to a degree, and attaining a size that causes it to be a most formidable foe to 

 the many fishes on which it feeds. It is also known by the name of MONK-FISH, in 

 allusion to the rounded head, which was thought to bear some resemblance to the shaven 

 crown of a monk ; and in some places is called the SHAKE BAY because it seems to be 

 one of the connecting links between the sharks and the rays, and has many of the 

 characteristics of both. On some parts of the British coasts it is known as the KINGSTON. 



It has many of the habits of the flat-fishes, keeping near the bottom, and even 

 wriggling its way into the muddy sand of the sea-bed so as to conceal its entire body. 

 As in the course of these movements it disturbs many soles, plaice, flounders, and other 

 flat-fishes that inhabit the same localities, it snaps them up as they endeavour to escape, 

 and devours great quantities of them, so that it is really a destructive fish upon a coast. 



It is most common upon the southern shores, and has there been taken of considerable 

 size, attaining a weight of a hundred pounds. Unfortunately the flesh is now thought 

 to be too coarse for the table, though it was formerly in some estimation, so that the 

 creature is useless to the fisherman, who can only avenge himself for his losses by killing 

 the destructive creature, but cannot repay himself by eating or selling it. The skin, 

 however, being rough, is of some small use in the arts, beins dried and employed, like 



