ANIMAL PARASITES AND MESSMATES. 



6ji 



pine Islands which bore considerable resemblance in this respect to a 

 hotel with its tahle-cVhote. 



A somewhat more excusable piece of pauperism is found in the 

 case of an eel, which ensconces itself in the branchial sac of that 

 curious fish known as the angler, or fishing-frog (Fig. 1), where he 

 afterward plays the part of a messmate. Although the eels generally 



Fig. 1. The Angler-Fish. 



get their living easily, the angler possesses fishing-implements which 

 are wanting in them, and, when immersed in the ooze, it carries on 

 a fishery sufficiently abundant for both. This relationship was first 

 observed by Risso in the Mediterranean ; the same fish in more north- 

 ern seas has since been found to harbor, in like manner, an amphipod 

 crustacean. 



Another remarkable example of this kind of association among 

 tish was made known by Reinhardt, of Copenhagen. A siluroid fish 

 occurring in Brazil, and possessed of numerous barbules that make 

 it successful as a fisherman, lodges in the cavity of its mouth some 

 very small fishes, that for a long time were supposed to be young 

 siluroids ; it was believed that the mother brought her progeny to 

 maturity in the mouth, as marsupials do in the abdominal pouch, or 

 as some other fishes do. But this is a mistake. The supposed young 

 are perfectly developed adult fish, that, instead of living by their own 



