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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
appearance, they may perhaps not improperly be called the "sea-urchins" among fishes.
Another strange form is the fishing-frog, or angler (Fig. 18), whose enormous mouth enables it to swallow animals nearly as large as
Fig. 18.—Angler, or Goose-fish (Lophius Americanus, Cuvier).
itself, and whose anterior dorsal rays bear fleshy filaments, which it is said to use as a bait to decoy other fishes, that it may secure them as food.
In the cavities under stones in the sea are found the little toad-fishes (Fig. 19), whose head is so like that of a toad that we are ready to concede that both the popular and scientific names of these animals (batrachus) are well bestowed.
Fig. 19.—Toad-fish (Batrachus tau, Linnæus).
There are many other fishes that depart so much from the ordinary forms that the common fisherman instinctively names them after some land-animals. The sea-wolf or wolf-fish is one of these, although its head is more like that of a wild-cat or a lynx than it is like that of a wolf. It is sometimes called the sea-cat. Its body is long, with a dorsal fin nearly the whole length, and the head is round; its mouth is armed with a most formidable array of teeth, making this animal,