Volume 37, Plate XXI / Ichthyology (Fish)

Fishing-Frog

Lophius piscatorius

Perhaps the most celebrated of fishes, the Angler is famed for its prodigiously broad flat head, enormous mouth, and filamentous tentacula, the first bearing a lustrous flag used to lure prey while it lies couched stirring up mud. Specimens of three or four feet are common, some reaching six or more; brown above and white below, it is boldly voracious, swallowing cod, conger, and even a cork buoy, and its tail flesh is reckoned good.