136 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
to form a hollow, perhaps a foot in width, which ex- 
tends under the stone. If one approaches cautiously, 
one may see the head of a Toad-Fish peep out. The 
fish is not easy to see, but with a little care you can 
distinguish its broad mouth, the fine, graceful filaments 
on its jaws and the rest of its head, and its eyes, which 
are really beautiful. Occasionally, too, a large portion 
of its body is in sight; but at the slightest noise it 
draws back under the stone, soon to reappear once 
more. It lies here perhaps only in order safely to 
conceal itself, or perhaps to watch for its prey; but 
during July and August it seems to be engaged other- 
wise: at this time it apparently keeps guard over its 
eggs or its young. The eggs — of the size of dust- 
shot — adhere to the bottom of the stone, or, it may 
be, several hundred tiny Toad-Fish have attached them- 
selves there by the help of the disk which surrounds 
the base of the still unabsorbed yolk of the egg. If 
one drives the parent fish from the hole, it soon hurries 
back again". In winter, in Massachusetts, the northern 
portion of its geographical range, the Toad-Fish appar- 
ently withdraws on occasion to deep water; but dur- 
ing this season it generally buries itself in the mud 
and lies there in a torpid state. 
If our European Toad-Fish, as is highly probable, 
leads the same or a similar life and is also a distinct 
shore-fish, it is remarkable in the highest degree that 
it has been found off Kullen, but neither on the coast 
of France, nor in any other place north of the Spanish 
Peninsula. Perhaps Nilsson is right in his assumption 
that this fish has been found on more than one occa- 
sion and at more than one spot, but has been thrown 
away by the fishermen on account of its resemblance 
to the Cottidce. 
Fam. LOJPHIIDiE or PEDICULATL 
Form of the body variable, fat or oval. Skin naked , without scales , or with scattered protuberances or spines. 
Eyes small. First dorsal fin more or less entirely broken up into free , tentacular or spinous rays. Anal fin, 
and sometimes the second dorsal, comparatively short. Basal bones of the pectoral fins brachiate, two or three in 
number; the rays articulating only with the lowest of these bones. Jaw-teeth pointed, cardiform , mobile, of uni- 
form shape, but often varying in size. Gill-openings set in the form of large or small holes behind or above the 
base of the pectoral fins. Branchiostegal rays 6. Gills 2 r / 2 , 3 or 3 1 / 2 . Pseudobranchice generally wanting b . 
System of the lateral line of average development. Bays of the pectoral fins undivided. Bays of the caudal fin 
about 9. Skeleton only slightly ossified. 
The genus Lophius c of Artedi and Linnveus is 
replaced in the works of modern authors either, accord- 
ing to Cope 1 * and Bleekbr 6 , by a special order, Pedi- 
culati or Antennarii — the three species of Linnaeus 
(Lophius piscatorius, L. vespertilio and L. histrio) cor- 
responding to the three families within this order as 
defined by Bleeker — or according to Bonaparte 1 and 
Gunther 3 , by a family among the Acanthopterygians, 
a These observations have received from Ryder (American Naturalist, vol. XX (1886), p. 77) the additions that it is the male that 
watches the eggs and the fry, that the latter remain fast, as we have described, until the yolk-sac, which forms the adhesive disk, has been 
absorbed, and that the young are thus much better capable of free motion, when they leave the egg, than those of other fishes. 
h In Lophius, it is true, the pseudobranchiae are present, but they are very small. 
c Art., Gen. Pic., p. 62; Lin., Syst. Nat., ed. X, tom. I, p. 236. 
d Trans. Arner. Phil. Soc., Philad., N. ser., vol. XIV, art. V, p. 458 ( Pediculati ). Cf. also Gill, Arr. Fam. Fish., Smiths. Misc. 
Coll. No. 247, pp. XLI and 2. Cat. Fish. E. Coast North Amer ., Smiths. Misc. Coll. No. 283, p. 6; Jord., Gilb., Syn. Fish. N. Amer., 
Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 16, p. 843. 
e Atl. Ichth., tome V, p. 1 ( Bauclroies = Antennarii) . 
f Isis, 1833, p. 1200 ( Lophidce ). 
g Cat. Brit. Mus. Fish., vol. Ill, p. 178. 
