352 FISHES. 



CHAPTER III. THE ANGLER -FISH. 



The remarkable-looking Angler- Fish, disposed on the 

 fishmonger's slab to greatest advantage, its huge gape 

 Angler or distended with a lobster or other attractive 

 Fishing- mouthful, is very frequently the cause of ob- 

 ^°^' structions on London pavements. Of voracious 



appetite but sluggish habits, it lies in ambush for the 

 small fish on which it preys, and is said to attract them 

 within reach of its jaws with the aid of the filaments 

 that grow from the dorsal fin — a popular estimate which 

 Cunningham^ criticises, more particularly as regards the 

 alleged phosphorescence of the forked extremity of the 

 filament, quoting an interesting fact observed by Mr Lane, 

 that the fish always contrived, by snapping rapidly, to 

 catch that portion of a stick which just touched the fila- 

 ment. This is very different from the old notion of the 

 " rod " catching the young fish and conveying them to the 

 mouth. The most striking character of this fish is perhaps 

 to be found in the huge bulk of its flattened spinous head 

 as contrasted with the attenuated hind - quarters, a van 

 concentration of strength similar to that in the mole. In 

 colour it is dark-brown above, white beneath. Though a 

 slow swimmer, save in the, larval stage, the angler is able, 

 with the aid of its arm-like pectoral fins, to walk on the 

 sand after the fashion of gurnards. It spawns in summer, 

 the eggs floating at the surface in great sheets of 20 feet 

 or more in length. 



1 Marketable Marine Fishes, p. 338. 



