THE ANGEL-FISH. 



205 



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 Shark Rat 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 

 English 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 soutliern shores, and has there been taken of considerable 

 size, attaining a weight of a liundred pounds. Unfortunately, the flesh is now thought to be 



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too coarse for the table, though it was formerly in some estimation, so that the creature is 

 useless to the fisheraian, 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, like that of the dog-fish, for polish- 

 ing joiner' s work, and it is in some places manufactured into a sort of shagreen. 



The eyes are set rather far back on the upper part of the head, and a little behind each 

 eye is the temporal orifice, very large, in proportion to the dimensions of the fish, very long, 

 and set transversely on the head. The wide mouth, which opens in front of the head and not 

 below as in the sharks, is furnished with rather long and sharply-pointed teeth. The color of 



