Sea-wolf
wolf blennies
SEA-WOLF, also SEA-CAT and WoLF-FIsEr (Anarrlticluts lupus), a marine fish, the largest kind of the family Blenniidx or Blennies. In spite of its large size, it has retained the bodily form and general external character-istics of the small blennies, which are so abundant on every rocky part of the coast. Its body is long,
subcylin-drical in front, compressed in the caudal portion, smooth and slippery, the rudimentary scales being embedded and almost hidden in the skin. An even dorsal fin extends along the whole length of the back, and a similar fin from the vent to the caudal fin, as in blennies. But its formidable dentition distinguishes the sea-wolf from all the other members of the family. Both jaws are armed
in front with strong conical teeth, and on the sides with two series of large tubercular molars, a biserial band of simi-lar molars occupying the middle of the palate. By these teeth the sea-wolf is able to crush the hard carapaces or shells of the crustaceans and molluscs on which it feeds ; but whether it uses the teeth as a weapon of defence and deserves the character of ferocity generally
attributed to it would appear to be rather questionable from observations made on specimens in the aquarium at Hamburg, which allowed them-selves to be handled without in any way re-senting the loss of their liberty. It must, how-ever, be added that the small blennies bite readily when caught. Sea-wolves are inhabitants of the northern seas of both hemispheres, one (A. lupus) being common on the coasts of
Scandinavia and North Britain, and two in the seas round Iceland and Greenland. Two. others occur in the corresponding latitudes of the North Pacific. They attain to a length exceeding 6 feet, and in the north are esteemed as food, both fresh and preserved. The oil extracted from the liver is said to be in quality equal to the best cod-liver oil. Of late years small num-bers have reached the
English markets, where, however, the prejudice which attaches to all scaleless fishes, parti-cularly such as possess a varied pattern of coloration, limits their use as food. 
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