Handbook of the marine and freshwater fishes of the British Islands : (including an enumeration of every species) . ength, The additional sobriquet of the Pocket-fish has been conferred by fishermen upon theAngler, with reference to the pouch-shaped branchialcavities with which the minute gill-opening has ascribed to these branchial pouches a varietyof functions, one being that they subserved as pockets, its prey, is altogether erroneous and impossible ; the species possessesno air-bladder, and unless laboriously engaged in propelling itselfthrough the water with its cau
Handbook of the marine and freshwater fishes of the British Islands : (including an enumeration of every species) . ength, The additional sobriquet of the Pocket-fish has been conferred by fishermen upon theAngler, with reference to the pouch-shaped branchialcavities with which the minute gill-opening has ascribed to these branchial pouches a varietyof functions, one being that they subserved as pockets, its prey, is altogether erroneous and impossible ; the species possessesno air-bladder, and unless laboriously engaged in propelling itselfthrough the water with its caudal fin, sinks helplessly to the bottom. 28 MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES wherein the fish stowed away any superabundant supply offood, and another that they supplied refuges to which theyoung retreated for safety when alarmed. As a matter offact these gill pouches are almost invariably found tocontain examples of that interesting parasitic crustaceanLemeotoma lophii. The spawn of the Angler is reportedby Professor Spencer Baird, of the United States FisheryCommission, to form a floating sheet of mucous of from. FIG. 6.—YOUNG ANGLER (Z. piscatorius). sixty to one hundred feet square, the number of ovacomputed to have been contained in such a mass depositedby a specimen measuring four and a half feet long, being noless than 1,427,344. The earliest pelagic condition of theAngler, as shown in the accompanying figure, differs in aremarkable manner from the parent form, and more especi-ally in the luxuriant development of the fins and fin rays. OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 29 FAMILY VIII.—Weever-Fishes {Trachinidce). The body more or less elongated and compressed ; certainbones of the head usually armed with spines, the pre-operculum without a bony stay ; the teeth minute, villiform ;one or two dorsal fins, the anterior spinous portion beingalways the shorter; an air-bladder generally absent;branchiostegal rays varying from five to seven in number. The Weever-fishes, of which there ar
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