474 THE WALKING FISH. 
in which these spines are connected with the body is truly marvellous. The 
first, which is furnished at its tip with a loose shining slip of membrane, is 
developed at its base into a ring, through which passes a staple of bone that 
proceeds from the head. The reader may obtain a very perfect idea of this 
beautiful piece of mechanism by taking a common iron skewer, slipping a 
staple through its ring, and driving the staple into a board. It will then be 
seen that the skewer is capable of free motion in every direction. The 
second spine is arranged atter a somewhat similar fashion, but is only 
capable of being moved backwards and forwards. The use of these spines 
is no less remarkable than their form. ; 
The Fishing Frog is not a rapid swimmer, and would have but little 
success if it were to chase the swift and active fishes on whichit feeds. It 
therefore buries itself in the muddy sand, and continually waves the long 
filaments with their glitter- 
ing tips. The neighbour- 
ing fish, following the in- 
stincts of their inquisitive 
nature, come to examine 
the curious object, and are 
suddenly snapped up in the 
wide jaws of their hidden 
foe. Many fishes can be 
attracted by any glittering 
object moved gently in the 
water, and it is well known 
by anglers how deadly a 
bait is formed of a spoon- 
shaped piece of polished 
metal, furnished with hooks 
and quickly drawn through 
the water. 
It is impossible to mistake this fish for any other inhabitant of the ocean, 
its huge head—wide, flattened, and toad-like— its enormous and gaping 
mouth, with the rows of sharply-pointed teeth, its eyes set on the top of the 
_ head, and the three long spines, being signs which cannot be misunderstood. 
The general colour of this fish is brown above and white below; the ventral 
and pectoral fins are nearly white, and that of the tail almost black. The 
throat, just within the jays. is composed of loose skin, which forms a kind of 
bag. The average length of the adult Fishing Frog is about a yard. 
The family in which this fish is placed may be distinguished by the 
peculiar structure of the pectoral fins, which are mounted on a sort of arm 
produced by an elongation of the carpal bones. From this peculiarity, the 
family is termed Pediculati, or foot-bearing fishes, as the prolonged fins 
enable them to walk along wet ground almost like quadrupeds. 
THE very odd-looking creature, called the WALKING FISH, which is shown 
in the illustration on page 475, is one of the strange and weird forms that 
sometimes occur in nature, and which are so entirely opposed to all precon- 
ceived ideas, that they appear rather to be the composition of human 
ingenuity than beings actually existing. The traveller who first discovered 
this remarkable fish would certainly have been disbelieved if he had 
contented himself with making a drawing of it, and had not satisfied the 
rigid scrutiny of scientific men by bringing home a preserved specimen. 
In the fishes of this genus, the carpal bones, z.e. those bones which 
represent the wrist in man, are very greatly lenythened, more so than in the 
preceding genus, and at their extremity aie placed the pectoral fins, which 
FISHING FRoG.—(Lophius piscatorius.) 
