DAVEY JONES' GOBLINS 361 



it does, although we are only on the threshold of in- 

 timate knowledge of the life histories of these sea 

 creatures. Circumstantial evidence, however, is 

 often conclusive enough proof, as Thoreau said 

 when he discovered a trout in the milk, and when 

 we bring up a fish which has swallowed another 

 five and a half times its own length, we realize that 

 we are far indeed from the seaweed nibbling zone. 



All deep sea life has either slid slowly down the 

 continental slopes or year by year become water- 

 logged to deeper and deeper zones from the surface 

 of the sea. Hence we often find relatives of the 

 abyssmal forms quite near home. The angler is 

 a common fish which buries itself in the mud, with 

 a long, fleshy-tipped tentacle lure dangling freely 

 in the water. At the approach of prey, almost the 

 entire fish opens into an enormous mouth and en- 

 gulfs the unwary victim. The capacity and vor- 

 acity of its deep sea relatives are adumbrated in 

 this shallower water fisher, for seven wild ducks 

 have been found in the stomach of one of these 

 fish. 



In the illustrations of this volume I have in- 

 cluded seven deep sea anglers or sea-devils (Fig- 

 ures 1, 48, 49, 50, 58, 59, 60), to show the variety 

 of these remarkable fish. Most of these are un- 

 named species but to the first (Figure 1) I have 

 already^ given the name of Little Devil of the 

 Arcturus, Diabolidium arcturi and the rest will 

 already have been christened by the time this ap- 

 pears in print. Figures 53 and 54 are photographs 



^N. Y. Zoological Society Bulletin, XXIX, No. 2. 



