164 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.—CLASS IV. PISCES. 
their demi-cartilaginous skeleton, and their skin without scales, consists in 
the pectoral being supported as by two arms, each consisting of two bones, 
which may be compared to the radius and ulna of an arm, but which, in 
reality, belong to the carpus, or wrist; and, in this genus, they are larger 
than in any other. They are also characterized by having the ventrals 
placed much in advance of the pectorals, and by having the operculum and 
the gill-rays enyeloped in the skin, so that the gill-opening is merely a hole 
situated behind the pectoral. They are voracious fishes, with a large stom- 
ach and a short intestine; they can live a long time out of the water, in 
consequence of the small size of their gill-openings. They admit of division 
into three sub-genera. 
“Lophius. — These fishes have the head excessively large compared to the 
body, very broad, depressed, and spinous in many parts; the mouth deeply 
cleft, and armed with pointed teeth, and the lower jaw fringed round with 
many fleshy barbules. They haye two dorsal fins, and some rays of the 
first are free, and move on the bones of the head, where they rest on a 
horizontal, inter-spinal process. In the Angler, or Fishing-frog, the motions 
of these detached rays are very peculiar. Two are considerably in advance 
of the eyes, almost close to the upper lip; the posterior of these is articu- 
lated by a stirrup upon a ridge of the base, but the anterior one is articulated 
by a ring at its base, into a solid staple of the bone, thus admitting of free 
motion in every direction, without the possibility of displacement, except in 
case of absolute fracture. The third one, which is on the top of the cranium 
behind the eyes, is articulated much in the same manner as the posterior one 
of the other two; and, of course, though these two have considerable motion 
in the mesial plane of the fish, they have a very little in the cross direction. 
The one near the lip, however, can be moved with nearly the same ease and 
rapidity in every direction ; and, while the others terminate in points, it car- 
ries a little membrane, or flag, of brilliant metallic lustre, which the fish is 
understood to use as a means of alluring its prey; and the position of the 
flag, the eyes, and the mouth, certainly would answer well for such a pur- 
pose. The gill-membrane forms a large sac, opening in the axilla of the 
pectorals, supported by six very long rays, and with a small operculum. 
They have only three gills on each side. It is said that these fishes lurk in 
the mud, where, by agitating the rays on their heads, they attract smaller 
fishes, which mistake the appendages upon the rays for worms, and which 
are instantly seized, and transferred to the gill-sac. Their intestines have 
two or three short ceeca near the commencement, but the fishes have no air- 
bladders.” 
L. Piscatorius, the Fishing-frog, Sea-devil, and many other local names, 
attains sometimes the length of four or five feet, and the extreme hideous- 
