akes place but slowly
from within them, and thus the gills are kept moistened, and the
circulation of the blood is preserved, even out of the water, for two
or three days. So remarkable a deviation from the usual appearance and
habits of the class to which they belong, has naturally caused them to
be regarded as objects of curiosity; and it is recorded, that living
specimens have been successfully transported from the East to Holland,
where they have been sold at considerable prices.

The fishes of this genus, to which Commerson gave the name of
Antennarius, (on account of the filament which they possess on the
forehead,) are met with in the sea of warm climates, in the east as
well as in the west. They subsist chiefly on small crabs, to surprise
which they hide themselves among the sea-weed, or behind stones. Their
flesh is said not to be edible; it may, perhaps, have been rejected,
on account of their disgusting appearance, and is certainly too small
in quantity to allow of its being important as an article of food.
In swimming, they usually gulp down air, and, thus distending their
capacious stomachs, enlarge themselves into a rounded half-floating
mass, much in the same manner as the globe of balloon fishes. Their
nearest affinity is to the fishes known as anglers, with which
they agree in the form of their gill-openings and fins, and in
the possession of filaments on the head; but the monstrously
disproportioned head of the anglers, which is depressed from
above downwards, and the enormous opening of their mouth, readily
distinguish them from the Toad Fishes, whose head is of moderate size,
and, like their bodies, compressed laterally. They are either smooth
or variously hairy or bristly, and are always destitute of the regular
scales with which fishes are generally invested. They are furnished,
especially on the lips and the under parts, with numerous short, loose
processes of skin, which add considerably to their sense of touch.
There is great variety in the different kinds in the length of the
filament on the head, and its termination is still more varied; in
some it is almost simple, as though formed of a single undilated hair;
in others, it is surmounted by a small, dense, globular mass of short
filaments; and in others again, it has two, or even three large fleshy
processes at its end, not unlike the baits which terminate the fishing
filaments of the anglers.

In the species figured, the Antennarius Iaeviga