150 THE ANGLER FAMILY. 



single gill-opening on each side and the short tapering tail are 

 all features which give the angler-fish a unique appearance. 

 The stories concerning the habits of this fish are full of interest 

 but are scarcely in place here. 



It comes under the category of a food-fish and is treated in 

 a similar way to the wolf-fish. The head is cut off and only 

 the trunk is sent into the market. This is sold under the 

 name of ' croan ' and sometimes of ' John Dory,' a name that 

 of right belongs to a very different fish. Donovan states that 

 its flesh is ' delicate, like that of a frog ' ! whilst Couch pro- 

 nounces it to be delicious. Parnell states that ' the flesh is 

 considered good, especially near the tail.' 



The angler-fish belongs to that group of fishes which 

 have floating (pelagic) eggs and agrees with most of this group 

 in that the number of eggs carried by one female is great 

 (Thompson gives 1,420,000 and Fulton 1,345,848) and in that 

 the females are larger than the males. 



The eggs, however, do not float separately in the open 

 water but are surrounded by, and packed closely together in, a 

 mass of mucus, and carried about by the currents, as in the 

 case of Fierasfer. Baird states that the floating sheet of egg- 

 laden mucus may be from 60 to 100 feet square; Agassiz 

 describes the same as a gigantic band 12 or 13 yards long, of a 

 violet grey colour and somewhat blackish, from the pigment of 

 the contained embryos ; Prince describes a specimen from the 

 Frith of Forth 12 yards in length, from 6 to 10 inches broad 

 and yVj- inch in depth ; each egg is about -^^ inch in diameter, so 

 that the band appears to be, so to speak, only one egg thick. 



It is a peculiar accidental coincidence that the frog and its 

 allies have eggs enclosed in masses or bands of mucus, and 

 Prince also compares the young frog-fish larva in external 

 appearance to the larvae of Amphibians. The later larva and 

 even the adult have a certain amount of superficial resemblance 

 in shape to an Amphibian tadpole, which latter fact probably 

 gave rise to the name before the features of eggs or larvDs were 

 known. 



The large, floating masses of eggs are somewhat rarely met 

 with in comparison with the abundance of the adult, and Day 



