176 
ACANTHOPTERYGII. — LOPHIADiE. 
head is large, sometimes enormous ; commonly 
grotesque or hideous in its aspect, armed with 
singular horn-like processes, or filaments ; the | 
eyes small, placed near the top of the head, | 
usually with a vertical direction ; the tails small || 
and compressed ; all the fins small. 
It is to the thick, grotesque shape, naked tuber- 
culous skin, often marbled with sombre colours, 
great head, and wide gaping mouth — common 
to these fishes — that they owe the names of Frog- 
fishes and Toad-fishes, by which they are fami- I 
liarly distinguished. The accompanying figure i 
of one of the constituent genera of the Family, 
{MaltJie nasuta^ Cuv.) will illustrate one of the | 
forms, and show how appropriate is the reptilian | 
designation conferred upon them. Nor is this j 
MALTHE. 
at all an unfair specimen of the group ; the other 
genera abound with species in which the aspect, 
external characters, and colours are so unlike 
those of ordinary fishes that an unscientific observer 
would be instantly reminded of a Frog or Toad. 
The habits of these fishes have been already 
in part alluded to ; some of the tropical species 
of Antennarius are so truly amphibious, as to 
come on shore, and crawl about in the fields for 
