964 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



THE COMMON SCULPIN 



is covered with protuberances, ridges and 

 ragged flaps of skin, the bulging eyes are set 

 high upon the f op of the head, and the lower 

 jaw is undershot like that of a prize bull-dog. 

 The colors, which are quite variable, are often 

 very bright, but while they might appear hand- 

 some on another fish, they seem to make the 

 sea-raven even more repulsive. They give the 

 impression of warning coloration, as though the 

 fish were poisonous, rather than of decoration. 

 The sea-raven reaches a length of about two 

 feet and a large specimen is indeed a fearsome 

 object to behold. 



But the palm for ugliness, 

 if in this case such an award 

 is permissible, must unques- 

 tionably go to the angler or 

 goosefish. He is the quin- 

 tessence, the superlative de- 

 gree of all that is forbidding 

 and abhorrent in the fish 

 world. Dr. Bean passes 

 him by with the remark that 

 he is "a fish of singular' ug- 

 liness of appearance." but 

 this expression is far too 

 mild. He is a piscatorial 

 nightmare, whose every 

 aspect is repulsive, and if 

 he possesses any redeeming 

 feature whatsoever, it has 

 thus far escaped notice. 



Besides the names given 



above, he is known as the 

 bellows-fish, fishing frog, 

 monk-fish, devil-fish, head- 

 fish, all-mouth and satchel- 

 mouth, and the application 

 of most of these terms is 

 evident. At the first glance 

 the goosefish seems to be all 

 head, but this is a mistake, 

 for his stomach is astonish- 

 ingly capacious. When he 

 opens his mouth it looks as 

 if the whole upper half of 

 the fish were coming loose, 

 but there is space enough 

 left somewhere to contain 

 an enormous quantity of the 

 various fishes which make up his bill of fare. 

 Where he keeps it all is a mystery. The head 

 and the ridiculously small body are covered 

 with ragged fringes of skin which make him 

 look as if he were in the last stages of dissolu- 

 tion and this impression is heightened by the 

 flabby softness of the flesh. The head and the 

 anterior part of the body are flattened out as 

 though he were trying to escape observation by 

 squeezing himself into the sea floor. And such 

 is really the case, but for reasons of domestic 

 economy and not from any special modesty on 



COMMON SEA-RAVEN 



