The Tests of Evolution 241 



this is capable of motion and may be moved out in front 

 of the fish's mouth and waved to and fro, the tip of the 

 ray being beset with Httle movable filaments which are 

 fished about, squirming like a worm on a hook, to lure 

 small fish up and into the mouth of the Antennarius. 



This group of fishes is enormous, and in some species 

 we see all sorts of ridiculous things which have happened 

 — cases where a rod persists as only a useless filament in- 

 capable of motion; cases where it is elaborated into an or- 

 gan so complicated and so absurd that it is hard to believe 

 that it is anything but an ornament, using the word in its 

 zoological sense. The creature couldn't possibly get that 

 great branching affair into its mouth. Some of these fish- 

 ing frogs are just gigantic muscular sacs with fins so de- 

 generated that obviously the creatures cannot move. They 

 have great cavern-like mouths, not improbably suffused 

 with a luminous slime to lure fish to a point where, with 

 a sudden gulp, they can be engulfed by these animated 

 muscular sacs. 



Many of the baits at the end of the fishing rods are lu- 

 minous, and some rods are long enough so that this lumi- 

 nous bait can be pushed right around and into the fish's 

 mouth. Then he snaps on the electric light, the little fish 

 come up inquisitively, he snaps it out of the way, the mouth 

 closes, and our fishing frog is fed. 



I cite the extraordinary example of evolution presented 

 by the fishing frogs because to me it is absolutely impos- 

 sible to see how the first step ever happened to take place; 

 it is simply not explainable by any means at our command. 

 The fishing rod had to be a good fishing rod before it 



