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Show 184 PISCES. LoPHius, Cuv. The head excessively large in proportion to the rest of the body vel'Y broad and depressed, and spinous in many places; the mout~ deeply cleft and a1·med with pointed teeth; the lower jaw furnished with numerous cirri; two distinct dorsals, some rays of the first se. parated before and movable on the head, where they rest on a horizontal interspinal; the branchial membrane forming a very large sac, opening in the axilla, and supported by six very long rays; the operculum small. There are but three branchire on each side. It is asserted that these fishes live in the mud; where, by agi· tating the rays of their head, they attract smaller ones, who take the often enlarged and fleshy extremities of those rays for worms, and thus become their victims; it is also said that they can seizeor retain them in their branchial sac.( 1) They have two very short creca, near the origin of the intestine, but no natatory bladder. L. piscatorius, L.; Bl., 87; Sea-Devil; Galanga, &c. (The Angler.) A large fish, of from four to five feet in length, inha· biting the seas of Europe, whose hideous figure has rendered it celebrated. L. parvipinnis, Cuv. A very similar species that is found in the same seas; its second dorsal however is lower, and it has only twenty-five vertebrre, while the piscatorius has thirty.(2) CHIRONECTEs.-ANTENNARius, Commers. Four rays on the head, as in Lophius; the first of which is slen· der, and frequently terminating in a tuft; the succeeding ones, aug· men ted by a membrane, are sometimes much enlarged, and at others united into a fin. The body and head are compressed; the mouth cleft vertically: the only opening of the branchire, which are furnish· ed with four rays, is a canal and a small hole behind the pectoral; the dorsal occupies nearly the whole length of the back. The en· tire body is frequently provided with cutaneous appendages; there (1) Geoff.,Ann. duMus., X, p.180. (2) We are ignorant whether it is the Lophia8 budeca8aa of M. Spinolaand Risso or not, that species being described as more fawn-coloured and varied than the common one. Add the Loph. setigerus, Vahl, Soc. Hist. Nat. Copenh. IV, p. 215, and pl. iii, f, 5 and 6, improperly named viviparus by Dl., Syst., pl. xxxii. N.B. The Baudroye Ferguson, Lacep., Phil. Trans. LUI, xiii; the Lophim CONI"' hicw of Sh., Borlase, Corn., xxvii, 6; the L. barbatw, Gmel., Act. Stockh., 1779, f~c.III, pl. iv, are merely altered specimens of the piscat(Jf'iua; the L. monopttry· g&ul, Shaw, Nat. Mise., 202 and 203, is a Torpedo disfigured by the stuffer. ACANTHOPTERYGII. 185 are four branchire; the natatory bladder i.s large, and the intestine moderate, and without creca. These fishes, by filling their enormous stomachs with air, are enabled to expand their belly like a balloon; on land, their pairs of fins enable them to creep almost like small quadrupeds, the pectorals, from their position, performing the functions of hind feet, and thus they live out of water for two or three days. They are found in the seas of hot climates, and several of them were confounded by Linnreus under the name of Lophius his trio. ( 1) We might distinguish those species in which the second and third rays are united in a fin which is even sometimes joined to the second dorsal.(2) MALTIIE, Cuv., The head excessively enlarged and flattened, chiefly by the projection and volume of the suboperculum; the eyes forwards; the snout salient, like a small horn; the mouth, beneath the snout, moderate and protractile; the branchire supported by six or seven rays, and opening on the dorsal surface by a hole above each pectoral; a single, small, and soft dorsal; the body studded with osseous tubercles, with cirri the whole length of its sides; but there are no free ravs on the head. The creca and natatory bladder are wanting.(3) • BATRACHus, Bl. Schn.-BATRACOIDEs, Lac.(4) l The head horizontally flattened, broader than the body; the mouth (1) Species. Ohiron. pictus, Cuv., or Lophius histrio-pictus, Bl., Schn., 142, or Mem. Mus. III, xvi, 1;-0h. tumidus, Cuv., Mus. Ad. Fred., p. 56;-0h.ltmJigatus, C11v., or L. gibbus, Mitch. op. cit. I, vi, 9;-0h. marm(Jf'atua, or L. Hist. Marm., Bl., Schn., 142, Klein, Misc., ID, iii, 4, or L. raninus, Tiles., Mern. Nat. Mosc., II, xvi;-0/t. hispidus, Bl., Schn. 143, Mem. Mus., III, xvii, 2;-0h. acaber, lb., XVI, 2, or Gu.aperoa, Marcgr., 150 (but not the figure), L. histrio, lll. pl. cxi;Oh. biooellatua, Cuv., Mem. Mus. III, xvii, 3;-0h. ocellatus, or L. ltistr. ocell., Bl., Schn., 143, Parra, 1;-0h. variegatus, or L. cltironecte, Lacep., I, xiv, 2, or L. pictua, Shaw, Gen. Zool. V, part II, pl. clxv;-Oh. furcipilis, Cuv., Mem. Mus. llJ, xvii, 1; Laet., Ind. Occ., 574, a figure given for the guaperva, Marcgr. 150;~ h. nummifer, Cuv., Mem. Mus. III, xvii, 4;-0lt. Oommersonii, Cuv., Lacep. I, 11v, 3, and very badly, Hen., I, xliii, 212;-0h. tuberosus, Cuv. (2) Cit. punctatus, Cuv., Mem. Mus. III, xviii, 2, and Lacep. Ann. Mus. IV, lv, 3;-Clt. unipinnis, Cuv., Mem. Mus. III, xviii, 3, Lacep. Ann. Mus. ITI, xviii, 4. (3) Lopltiusvespertilio, L., Bl, 110;-Maltk nasuta, Cuv., Seb. I, lxxiv, 2;-M. notata, Cuv. ;-M. angusta, Cuv., the skeleton of which is found in Rosenthal, Pl. lcthy., t. XIX, 2;-M. truncata, Cuv.;-M. steltata, Cuv., or Lophius stellatu.a, Va~l., Mem. Soc. Hist. Kat. Copenh., lV, pl. iii, f. 3, 4, the same as the Lophie fau;aa, Lacep., I, xi, 2, 3, and the Lophius ruber, Til., 1\rusenstein's Voy., LXI. (4) BMpctx_o,, frog, from their broad head, VoL. II.-Y \ |