THE COMMON ANGUERV 
13s 
I’he Common Angler *. 
lx is in its tadpole date that this animal refembles the 
frog : its colour upon the back is dark blue, marbled 
with foine white fpots. The lower jaw proje&s confi- 
derably beyond the upper, which gives the animal a 
grinning afpedt. The eyes are placed in the upper fuper- 
ficies of the head, fomewhat prominent, and their irides 
white. About half an inch from the corner of the upper 
jaw are two- hairs, the one four, and the other fix inches 
in length. It is by means of thefe, according to PHny , 
that this animal fi-lhes ; it puts out thefe (lender horns 
among the mud, enticing the little filh to play around it 
till they come within reach, when it fprings upon them-, 
and devours them f . 
Around the edges of its head are fmall fin-like append 
dages ; outwardly there appear no apertures of the nofe, 
but there are two within the mouth, fuppofed to convey 
fmell %. About the middle of the back there rifes a fin 
fupported by ten rays ; the tail is not forked, but the 
rays ftretch l'omewhat beyond the membranes of the fin- 
The ventral fins are broad, thick, and flelhy, jointed like 
arms, and on the inner fide divided into fingers, refem- 
bling what is feen on the foot of a mole $. With thefe 
infiruments 
3 
* Lophius pifcatorius, I.in. Syft. La Grenouille de Mer. Belon* 
t Plinii, lib. ix. Vide etiam Cicero de Nat. Deor. 
y Willough. ubi fuprs. § Britiih Zool. and Willough. 
