352 PEOSE HAXIEUTICS. 



not bring forth her brood hatched in pouches, but from 

 eggs. Another essential difference, too, between these 

 sea-frogs and the sharks and rays, with which they 

 used to be associated, is the different position of the fins. 

 In other cartilaginous fish, these are placed far back, and 

 serve as legs ; but in the lopheus they are situated im- 

 mediately under the throat, and act as hands for prehen- 

 sion and for burrowing in the sand. Nor is the posi- 

 tion assigned by Cuvier to this fish among the Gobidse, 

 founded on the above peculiarity, less unsatisfactory or 

 forced, since all other connecting links are as deficient 

 here as in the older arrangement. Most members of 

 the division into which this fish is now foisted are eat- 

 able; but though the Greeks (nasty fellows !) have regis- 

 tered the sea-frog among their prime viands, and con- 

 sidered the liver, especially, equal to that of the narke, 

 and the flesh of the belly worthy to be served up at any 

 banquet, — 



BaTpa^ov 'ivff 'Idr/s Kal yauTpiov avrov crKevatrov, — 



the rank and flabby carcase has found few partisans else- 

 where, and Belon says its only value ' lies in whatever 

 undigested food may be found in its inside' : — ' C'est un 

 poisson moult laid a veoir, duquel on ne tient gran 

 compte de manger si ce n'est pour esventrer et luy tirer 

 les poissons qu'il ha encor touts en dudedans le corps.' 

 Let the reader for a moment imagine a gigantic tadpole 

 blown out to the size of a porpoise (sometimes indeed 

 much larger, for Pontoppidan mentions one of twelve 

 feet long, and several authors speak of individuals of 

 seven feet and upwards), with an immense head, and a 

 mouth extending on either side far beyond the width/ 

 of the body, opening to view a capacious den, shagged 

 throughout with hooked and mobile teeth, a triple tier 

 in the upper and an equal number in the lower jaw, the 

 palate, tongue, fauces, pharynx, and far down the throat. 



