LOPHIUS, FISHING-FROG, Toad-fish, or Sea-devil;
a genus of the branchiostegous order of fishes, whose
head is in size equal to all the rest of the body.
There are three species, the most remarkable of
which is the piscatorius, or common fishing-frog, an
inhabitant of the British seas. This singular fish was
known to the ancients by the name of Ραψαχός, and
Rana; and to us by that of the fishing-frog, for it
is of a figure resembling that animal in a tadpole
state. Pliny takes notice of the artifice used by it to
take its prey: Eminentia sub oculis cornicula turbato
limo exerit, assultantes pisciculos attrahens, donec tam
prope accedunt, ut assiliet. "It puts forth the slender
horns it has beneath its eyes, enticing by that
means the little fish to play round, till they come
within reach, when it springs on them." The fishing-
frog grows to a large size, some being between four
and five feet in length; and Mr Pennant mentions
one taken near Scarborough, whose mouth was a
yard wide. The fishermen on that coast have a great
regard for this fish, from a supposition that it is a
great enemy to the dog-fish; and whenever they take
it with their lines, let it at liberty.
It is a fish of very great deformity: the head is
much bigger than the whole body; is round at the
circumference, and flat above; the mouth of a pro-
digious wideness. The under jaw is much longer
than the upper: the jaws are full of slender sharp
teeth: in the roof of the mouth are two or three rows
of the same: at the root of the tongue, opposite each
other, are two bones of an elliptical form, thick set,
with very strong sharp teeth. The nostrils do not
appear externally, but in the upper part of the
mouth are two large orifices that serve instead of
them. On each side the upper jaw are two sharp
spines, and others are scattered about the upper part
of the head. Immediately above the nose are two
long tough filaments, and on the back three others;
these are what Pliny calls cornicula, and says it makes
use of to attract the little fish. They seem to be like
lines flung out for that end. Along the edges of the
head and body are a multitude of short fringed skins,
placed at equal distances. The aperture to the gills
is placed behind; each of these is very wide, so that
some writers have imagined it to be a receptacle for
the young in time of danger. The body grows slender
near the tail, the end of which is quite even. The
colour of the upper part of this fish is dusky, the lower
part white; the skin smooth.