15S FISHES. 



two arms, as it were, each of which is formed of two bones that have been 

 compared to the radius and ulna, but which in reality belong to the carpus , 

 and which in this genus are longer than in any other; in the ventrals 

 being placed very far before these pectorals ; in opercula and branchios- 

 tegous rays enveloped in the skin ; and, finally, in the only opening of the 

 gills being a hole situated behind the said pectorals. They are voracious 

 fishes, with a wide stomach and short intestine, which survive a long time 

 out of water, on account of the smallness of their branchial apertures. 



Lophius, Cuv. 



The Anglers, properly so called, have the head excessively large in 

 proportion to the rest of the body, very broad and depressed, and spinous 

 in many places; the mouth deeply cleft and armed with pointed teeth; 

 the lower jaw furnished with numerous cirri; two distinct dorsals, some 

 rays of the first separated before and moveable on the head, where they 

 rest on a horizontal interspinal; the branchial membrane forming a very 

 large sac, opening in the axilla, and supported by six very long rays ; the 

 operculum small. There are but three branchiae on each side. It is 

 asserted that these fishes live in the mud, where, by agitating the rays of 

 their head, they attract smaller ones, who take the often enlarged and 

 fleshy extremities of those rays for worms, and thus become their victims; 

 it is also said that they can seize or retain them in their branchial sac*. 

 They have two very short caeca near the origin of the intestine, but no 

 natatory bladder. 



L. piscatorius, L. ; Bl. 87; Sea-Devil; Galanga, &c. (The 

 Common Angler, or Frog Fish). A large fish, of from four to five 

 feet in length, inhabiting the seas of Europe, whose hideous figure 

 has rendered it celebrated. 



L. parvipinnis, Cuv. A very similar species, that is found in 

 the same seas ; its second dorsal, however, is lower, and it has only 

 twenty-five vertebrae, while the piscatorius has thirty -f". 



Chironectes. — Antennarius, Commers. 



The Hand- Fishes have four rays on the head, as in the Anglers ; the 

 first of which is slender, and frequently terminating in a tuft; the suc- 

 ceeding ones, augmented by a membrane, are sometimes much enlarged, 

 and at others united into a fin. The body and head are compressed; the 

 mouth cleft vertically : the only opening of the branchia?, which are fur- 

 nished with four rays A is a canal and a small hole behind the pectoral; the 

 dorsal occupies nearly the whole length of the back. The entire body is 



* Geoff. Ann. du Mus. X, p. 180. 



f We are ignorant whether it is the Lnpldas budecassa of M. Spinola and Risso or 

 not, that species being described as more fawn-coloured and varied than the common 

 one. 



Add, the Loplt. setigerus, Vahl, Soc. Hist. Nat. Copenh. IV, p. 215, and pi. iii, f. 5 

 and 6, improperly named viviparus by 131., Syst, pi. xxxii. 



N. B. The Baudroye Ferguson, Lacep., Phil. Trans. LI 1 1, xiii; the Lophius cornu- 

 bicus of Sh., Borlase, Corn, xxvii, C; the L. barbatus, Gmel., Act. Stockh., 1779, 

 3rd Cah. fasc. Ill, pi. iv, are merely altered specimens of the piscatorius; the L. me- 

 nopterygius, Shaw, Nat. Misc. 202 and 203, is a Torpedo disfigured by the stuffer. 



