52 
PICKED DOG. 
This species is a common article of food ■with fishermen, 
especially in the west of England ; and is valued also by some 
who are far above the necessity of classing it with their ordinary 
articles of subsistence. It is used both fresh and salted j and 
Lacepede, who speaks unfavourably of its flesh, informs us that 
in the north of Europe the eggs, which are about the size of 
a small orange, and consist solely of a pale-coloured yolk, are 
in high esteem. If prejudice could be got over, there is no 
doubt that they might form an agreeable, as well as a very 
nourishing article of food. 
The following, among many other instances, will shew the 
error of some naturalists, who have expressed the belief that 
examples of abnormal formation will not occur where animals 
are absolutely beyond the control of civilized man: — A friend 
was in possession of a Picked Dog that had a pair of heads, 
with the separation comiflcte so far back as behind the pectoral 
flns; and the flsherman who obtained it informed me that 
when found in his boat, where it must have been dropped 
after the parent had been caught, the egg was attached to it. 
Distortion in the hind parts is not uncommon, although only 
in foetal instances, since such examples could not long exist 
at liberty. 
The usual length is from eighteen inches to two feet; the 
females, as in most species of this great family, being the 
largest, and I have seen an example, in which the blunted 
dorsal spines betokened age, that weighed twelve pounds. The 
head is depressed, the snout projecting, mouth far under, and 
armed with flat cutting teeth ; nostrils midway between the mouth 
and extremity of the snout. The tongue thick and fleshy; eye 
large, spiracles rather elevated; gill openings five, at the origin 
of the pectoral fins. The body round and tapering; dorsal fins 
two, on the anterior border of each a stout, sharp, and slightly 
curved spine. The first dorsal at about midway between the 
pectorals and ventrals; no anal fin; pectoral fins wide; upper 
lobe of the tail short, wide, and simple, without a notch; 
ventrals short, concealing the vent. The upper parts a dark 
ash-colour, below white. 
I have seen what appeared in all other respects to be no 
other than a variety of this species, but which was all over of 
an intense black colour-, except a narrow line of dusky yellow 
