544 Order Pediculati : The Anglers 



attentively examined, and whereupon it will be found that 

 this singular fish, throughout the whole extent of its superficies, 

 may be appropriately designated a living sham." 



It was, in the first place, observed by Mr. Kent "that 

 the fish while quietly reclining upon the bottom of its tank 

 presented a most astonishing resemblance to a piece of inert rock, 

 the rugose prominences in the neighborhood of the head lending 

 additional strength to this likeness. This resemblance being 

 recognized, it was next found, on a little closer inspection, that 

 the fish constituted, in connection with its color, ornamentations, 

 and manifold organs and appendages, the most perfect facsimile 

 of a submerged rock, with that natural clothing of sedentary 

 animal and vegetable growths common to boulders lying beneath 

 the water in what is known as the laminarian zone. In this 

 manner the numerous simple or lobulated membranous struc- 

 tures dependent from the lower jaw and developed as a fringe 

 along the lateral line of the body imitate with great fidelity the 

 little flat calcareous sponges (Grantia), small compound ascid- 

 ians, and other low organized zoophytic growths that hang 

 in profusion from favorably situated submarine stones. That 

 famous structure known as the angler's ' rod and bait ' finds its 

 precise counterpart in the early growing phase of certain sea- 

 plants, such as the oarweed (Laminaria), while the more pos- 

 terior dorsal fin-rays, having short lateral branchlets, counter- 

 feit in a like manner the plant-like hydroid zoophytes known 

 as Sertularia. One of the most extraordinary mimetic adapta- 

 tions was, however, found in connection with the eyes, struc- 

 tures which, however perfectly the surrounding details may be 

 concealed, serve, as a rule, to betray the animal's presence to a 

 close observer. In the case of the angler, the eyes during life 

 are raised on conical elevations the sides of which are separated 

 by darker longitudinal stripes into symmetrical regions, the 

 structure, as a whole, with its truncated summit upon which 

 the pupil opens, reproducing with the most wonderful minute- 

 ness the multivalve shell of a rock barnacle (Balanus}. To 

 complete the simile the entire exposed surface of the body of 

 the fish is mapped out by darker punctated lines into irregular 

 polygonal areas, whose pattern is at once recognized by the 

 student of marine zoology as corresponding with that of the 



