ACANTHOPTERYGIANS. 159 



frequently provided with cutaneous appendages; there are four branchiae; 

 the natatory bladder is large, and the intestine moderate, and without caeca. 

 These fishes, by filling their enormous stomachs with air, are enabled to 

 expand their belly like a balloon; on land, their pairs of fins enable them 

 to creep almost like small quadrupeds, the pectorals, from their position, 

 performing the functions of hind feet, and thus they live out of water for 

 two or three days. They are found in the seas of hot climates, and se- 

 veral of them were confounded by Linnaeus under the name of Lophius 

 histrio *. 



We might distinguish those species in which the second and third rays 

 are united in a fin, which is even sometimes joined to the second dorsal f. 



Malthe, Cuv. 



The Beaked Anglers have the head excessively enlarged and flattened, 

 chiefly by the projection and volume of the suboperculum ; the eyes very 

 much forwards ; the snout salient, like a small horn ; the mouth, beneath 

 the snout, moderate and protractile ; the branchiae supported by six or 

 seven rays, and opening on the dorsal surface by a hole above each pec- 

 toral: a single, small, and soft dorsal; the body studded with osseous tu- 

 bercles ; cirri on the whole length of its sides ; but there are no free rays 

 on the head. The caeca and natatory bladder are wanting J. 



Batrachus, Bl. Schn. — Batracoides, Lac.§ 



The head horizontally flattened, broader than the body; the mouth 

 well cleft; operculum and suboperculum spinous; six branchial rays; the 

 ventrals nanow, inserted under the throat, and formed of but three rays, 

 the first of which is elongated and widened; pectorals supported by a 

 short arm, the result of the elongation of the carpal bones. The first 

 dorsal is short, and supported by three spinous rays; the second is soft 

 and long, as well as that of the anus, which corresponds to it. The lips 

 are frequently furnished with filaments. Those which have been dis- 



* Species: — Chiron, pictus, Cuv., or Lophius histrio-piclu.i, Bl., Schn. 142, or Mem. 

 Mus. Ill, xvi, 1 ; — Ch. tumidtis, Cuv., Mus. Ad. Fred., p. 56; — Ch. lavigatus, Cuv., or 

 L. gibbas, Mitch, op. cit. I, vi, 9;—Ch. marmoratus, or L. Hist. Marm., Bl., Schn. 142, 

 Klein, Misc. Ill, 3, 4, or L. raninus, Tiles., Mem. Nat. Mosc. II, jrrij-^-CA. hispidus, 

 BL, Schn. 143, Mem. Mus. Ill, xvii, 2;—Ch. scaler, lb. XVI, 2, or Guaperva, 

 Marcgr. 150 (but not the figure), L. histrio, BL, pi. cxi; — Ch. biocellatus, Cuv., Mem. 

 Mus. Ill, xvii, 3;— Ch. ocellatus, or L. histr. ocell., BL, Schn. 143, Parra, 1; — Ch. ra- 

 rifgatus, or L. chironecte, Lacep. I, xiv, 2, or L. pictus, Shaw, Gen. Zool. V, part II, 

 pi. clxv; — Ch.furcipilis, Cuv. Mem. Mus. Ill, xvii, 1; Laet. Ind. Occ. 574, a figure 

 given for the guaperva, Marcgr. 150; — Ch.nummifer, Cuv. Mem. Mus. Ill, xvii, 4; — 

 Ch. Commerstnii, Cuv., Lacep. I, xiv, 3, and very badly, Hen. I, xliii, 212; — Ch. tubc- 

 rosu.i, Cuv. 



f Ch. punctatus, Cuv. Mem. Mus. Ill, xviii, 2, and Lacep. Ann. Mus. IV, lv, 3; 

 — Ch. unipinnis, Cuv. Mem. Mus. Ill, xviii, 3, Lacep. Ann. Mus. Ill, xviii, 4. 



X Lophius vesper tilio, L., Bl. 110; — Malth. nasuta, Cuv., Seb. I, lxxiv, 2; — M. no- 

 tata, Cuv.; — M. angiista, Cuv., the skeleton of which is found in Rosenthal, PL 

 Icthy. t. XIX, 2; — M. truncata, Cuv.; — M. stellata, Cuv., or Lophius stcllatus, VabL, 

 Mem. Soc. Hist. Nat. Copenh. IV, pi. iii, f. 3, 4, the same as the Lophie fatijas, 

 Lacep. I, xi, 2, 3, and the Lophius ruber, Til., Krusenstein's Voy. LXI. 



§ Uatrachos, frog, from their broad head. 



