WOLF-FISH. 



247 



ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



GOBIOIBM. 



THE WOLF-FISH. 



SEA-WOLF, SEA-CAT. Scotland. — swine-fish. Orkney. 



Aiiarrhichas lupus, LinNjEus. 



Block, pt. iii. pL 74. 



CuviER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 240. 



Wolf-fish, Penn. vol. iii. p. 201, pi. 27. 



Striped Sea-wolf, Don. pi. 24. 



Wolf-fish, Flem. Brit. An. p. 208, sp. 127. 



Generic Characters. — Head smooth, rounded in form, muzzle obtuse ; body 

 elongated, covered with minute scales ; dorsal and anal fins long, distinct from 

 the caudal ; no ventral fins : teeth of two kinds; those in front elongated, curved, 

 pointed ; the others on the vomer, as also on the jaws, truncated, or slightly 

 rounded : branchiostegous rays 6. 



Cuvier considers the species of Anarrhichas as Blennies 

 destitute of ventral fins. One of them, the Wolf-fish of the 

 British coast, is almost exclusively a northern fish, and 

 has been seldom observed on our southern shore. It is 

 taken oif the coasts of Norfolk and Yorkshire, in the Frith 

 of Forth, and among the Orkneys ; it is well known also 

 on the shores of the North of Europe, in Greenland and 

 Iceland. 



The appearance of this fish is not prepossessing. Inde- 

 pendently of a ferocious-looking cat-like head, with an 



