234 
'SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
with a lighter ring round the pupil. The dorsal and 
anal tins are marked with oblique, black streaks. 
All the new-caught specimens we have seen, have 
been of this colour. If the fish is exposed to the air 
for some time, or left to lie among other fishes in the 
boat, the colour becomes bleached; and it thus happens 
that the one side, that on which the fish has lain, or 
which has been covered with other fishes, may partly 
or wholly lose colour, while the colour of the other 
side is more or less perfectly retained. This is a change 
to which most fishes are liable; and caution should, 
therefore, always be employed in the determination of 
new colour-varieties. That there may be such varieties 
of the Sea-cat", we do not intend to dispute; but several 
of those which have been considered in this light, were 
evidently due to this cause. During youth the colour- 
ing of the body is lighter, and more like that of the 
the left being twice as long as the right and also nar- 
rower and more pointed. The two ovaries are posteriorly 
united and are furnished with a wide opening duct. 
The Sea-cat is one of those fishes of which the 
old writers have collected a number of fictitious ac- 
counts, which have been transferred from one book to 
another. Both its generic name, Anarrhichas, and its 
specific name, Lupus , have originated from the false 
ideas entertained of the habits of this fish. Gesner, 
as we have remarked above, in the middle of the seven- 
teenth century gave it the former name, which means 
climber, in accordance with an old tradition that the 
fish climbed up rocks and cliffs. Linnaeus retained 
Lupus as the specific name from the old name Lupus 
marinus , under which the Wolf-fish had been generally 
known and dreaded. Even in Hollbeiig (1. c.) we find 
the following paragraph, quoted from Lacepede: “Cruel 
Fig. 62. Young Anarrhichas lupus from Bohuslan. Natural size. 
following species. The spots which form the transverse 
bands are then more prominent, many of them being 
as large as the pupil. The greater distinctness of the 
spots, and the break at the end of the upper margin 
of the caudal fin which Ave have already mentioned, 
in young specimens of this species, indicate the deve- 
lopmental relations in Avhich it stands to the following 
species. 
The Sea-cat has a fairly wide, muscular oesophagus, 
Avhich opens into a somewhat saccate stomach, near the 
bottom of Avhich lies the pylorus. There are no pyloric 
appendages Avhatever. The intestine is long, Avide and 
of a thin and fragile texture. It forms three bends, 
and ends in a short, Avidened rectum, like a reversed 
cone. The air-bladder is Avanting. The liver consists 
either of two lobes, of fairly equal size and closely 
united, or of three, the middle one lying transversely 
across the anterior end of the abdominal cavity, and 
as the Shark, it Avorks terrible havoc among its OAvn 
genus, and displays the same voracity in the piscine 
world as the Avild-beast from which it derives its name, 
among the defenceless herds.” We give this quotation 
only as a specimen of the old prejudice against this 
fish for its rapacity, and of the length of time for 
Avhich, Avhen once rooted, such a prejudice may endure. 
The Sea-cat is anything but a fish-of-prey, in the 
meaning generally attached to the term. To convince 
oneself of this, one need only examine its remarkable 
dentition, large masticatory muscles and short jaws, 
Avhich do not admit of the Avide opening of the gape 
which characterizes the true fishes-of-prey or those col- 
loquially called voracious (svalgfismr). The structure 
of the mouth, on the contrary, belongs to a creature 
that lives on very hard substances, Avhich must be 
crushed before they can be SAvalloAved. It is difficult 
to conceive a crushing-machine more suited to its pur- 
Cf. Hollberg, 1. c., p. 25. 
