140 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
Fig. 36. Embryos and young of Lophius piscatorius. Magnified. 
a: three eggs, enveloped in the gelatinous membrane, and each con- 
taining an embryo; b: one of these embryos with external (pendent) 
yolk sac, taken out of the egg; c: a young specimen already hatched, 
with the yolk-sac almost entirely absorbed, and with a clavate stalk 
at the bottom of the sac, which is the rudiment of a ventral fin; 
cl: another young specimen, with the yolk-sac completely absorbed, 
and with the stalk more developed. After Alex. Agassiz. 
The naked and loose, slippery skin is chiefly dis- 
tinguished by its numerous fringed appendages, which 
are wanting, however, on the lower side of the body, 
their arrangement thus bearing out the assumption that 
their object is to give the flsh when at rest at the bottom 
and when seen from above, a certain resemblance to 
the vegetation growing there. These fringes, which 
assume the form of lobate leaves of seaweed, vary in 
size, and are most highly developed at the edges of 
the body, but are also scattered over the whole of its 
upper side and over the upper side of the pectoral flns. 
The fringe on each side of the forehead, above the 
Fig. 37. Young of Lophius piscatorius. a: a specimen somewhat 
older than the oldest one in tlic preceding figure, but still with only one 
ray in the dorsal, as well as in the ventral fin; b: the same specimen 
seen from above, with the pectoral and ventral fins figured only on one 
side; c: a somewhat older specimen, with the rudiment of a new ray 
in the ventral fins, on the inner side of the first ray; d: rays of the 
dorsal fin in a somewhat older specimen; e: the same rays in a still 
older specimen: f: an older specimen, with the rudiment of a new 
ray in the dorsal fin, behind the first two; g: the rays of the ventral 
fin in a specimen somewhat older than c, and of about the same age 
as that from which fig. e is taken. After Alex. Agassiz. 
on the flattened body), nearer and nearer to the lateral 
edge, which it afterwards follows all the way to the 
middle of the base of the caudal fin. From the temples 
the lateral line sends out in a forward direction an 
occipital and a parieto-frontal branch, the latter of 
which, however, soon divides and sends out a supra- 
orbital branch on the snout, while its other division, 
the suborbital branch, apparently disappears just below 
the eyes. In a downward direction from the temples 
runs an opercular branch, which lower down (above 
(the longest) ray in the second dorsal, and ends a little 
farther back than this fin; its height (the length of the 
longest ray — the fourth or fifth) is about equal to 
that of the second dorsal. The hind margin of the 
caudal fin is truncate or slightly rounded. Its length 
is somewhat greater than that of the pectoral fins. The 
ventral fins, the creeping organs of the fish, are set 
far forward on the lower side of the head, just behind 
the perpendicular from the hind margin ot the eye. 
They are obliquely rounded, but almost truncate in 
form. Their length is about equal to, or at least 4 / 5 
of that of the longest rays in the pectoral fins. 
h 
middle of the eye, is especially remarkable. As a rule, 
too, a row of small fringes coasts the lateral line and 
its branches on each side. 
The course of the lateral line may easily be dis- 
tinguished by the white spots, or small white trans- 
verse streaks on its pores. The lateral line proper 
starts from the temporal region, about half-way between 
the pectoral fins and the first dorsal, but a little be- 
hind this point curves some way downwards (outwards 
