THE ANGEL-FISH. 



The color is dark leaden gray 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-finned, 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, 



ANGEL-FISH. Squatlna vulgarh. 



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 SHARK RAY 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 endeavor 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 con- 

 siderable 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, being dried and employed, 



