perform the functions of feet. Nor is this all. It is 

 patent that Lophius is an indifferent swimmer. 

 How, then, does it manage to overcome its prey 

 which as a rule is more active and much fleeter by 

 far? 



Of course, although the angler is not an abyssal 

 animal, no one has ever penetrated those depths in 

 which it lives, to observe its ways, nevertheless, a 

 good picture of certain of its methods may be 

 formed from deduction. Mention has already been 

 made of the filamentous fin which serves as a feeler, 

 if not actually as a lure. This latter function is not 

 an improbability, as in certain deep-sea relatives 

 of this creature the terminal lappet is supplanted 

 by a phosphorescent organ. Now, too, where our 

 Lophius lives, it is deep in gloom, if not densely 

 dark. Here resting on the bottom, of which, by 

 reason of its color, it seems to form an indistin- 

 guishable part, and with its large lugubrious eyes 

 looking upward, trying vainly to pierce the black- 

 ness of the perpetual night, it projects its peculiar 

 fin slightly forward — the verisimilitude of a ris- 

 ing frond of seaweed — and patiently awaits its 

 prey. Soon or late, a single one or an entire school 



[27] 



