472 FISHES. 



are provided with three long iilanients inserted along the 

 middle of the head, which are, in fact, the detached and 

 modified three first spines of the anterior dorsal fin. The 

 filaments most important in the economy of the fishing-frogs 

 is the first, which is the longest, terminates in a lappet, and 

 is movable in every direction. There is no doubt that the 

 Fishing-frog, like many other fish provided with similar 

 appendages, plays with this filament as with a bait, attract- 

 ing fishes, which, when sufficiently near, are ingulfed by the 

 simple act of the Fishing-frog opening its gape. Its stomach 

 is distensible in an extraordinary degree, and not rarely fishes 

 have been taken out of it quite as large and heavy as then- 

 destroyer. The British species grows to a length of more 

 than five feet ; specimens of three feet are common. Baird 

 records that the spawn of the same species has been observed 

 as a floating sheet of mucus, of from some 60 to 100 square feet. 



Cbratias. — Head and body much compressed and elevated ; 

 cleft of the mouth wide, subvertical. Eyes very small. Teeth 

 in the jaws rasp-like, depressible ; palate toothless. Skin covered 

 with numerous prickles. The spinous dorsal is reduced to two 

 long isolated spines, the first on the middle of the head, the 

 second on the back. The soft dorsal and anal short ; caudal 

 very long. Ventrals none ; pectorals very short. Two and a 

 half gills. Skeleton soft and fibrous. 



Ceraiias JiolboUi, a deep-sea fish; only a few examples 

 have been found near the coast of Greenland, and from the 

 mid- Atlantic ; the latter at a depth of 2400 fathoms. Deep 

 black. 



HiMANTOLOPHUS. — Head and body compressed and elevated ; 

 cleft of the mouth wide, oblique. Eyes very small. Teeth of 

 the jaws rasp-like, depressible; palate toothless. Skin with 

 scattered conical tubercles. The spinous dorsal is reduced to a 

 single tentacle on the head. The soft dorsal, anal, caudal, and 

 pectoral short. Ventrals none. Three and a half gills. Skele- 

 ton soft and fibrous. 



