﻿gill] life history of the angler 5°7 



either voluntarily or by force. If it is made to feed it will spit out 

 the morsel again. Before death the skin of the tail generall) peels 

 off, and the tail putrefies from the point upwards. 



The sea-devil attains considerable size, and the aquarium several 

 times possessed specimens more than a meter in length; the latter, 

 however, could not survive even as long as the smaller fishes. 



V 



As one of the popular names, Allmouth, indicates, the fish is well 

 fitted to ingest food, and its instinct is coordinate with its capacity. 

 It is, in fact, a most voracious carnivorous animal, and. so far at least 

 as flesh is concerned, omnivorous. It is indiscriminate, too, for in 

 Massachusetts some " annoy the fishermen by swallowing the wooden 

 buoys attached to the lobster pots," and a man " caught one by using 

 his boat-anchor for a hook." A bottom fish, it naturally \<v>\> largely 

 on fishes living on or near the bottom, such as Hat fishes, gurnards, 

 sculpins, sea-ravens, dog-fishes and small rays, as well as crabs, lob- 

 sters, squids and starfishes. Impartiality in accepting what offers 

 itself was manifest in one from which Buckland took "two mary- 

 soles, one common sole, one piked dog-fish, i ft. 6 in. long, three 

 moderate-sized crabs, fourteen five-fingers, and one whiting." ( )b- 

 servations were made on three Massachusetts individuals taken in 

 1897 and 1899 and recorded by Edwin Linton (1901). One " had 

 in its stomach a large quantity of mud which was rich in mollusca, 

 annelids and small crustaceans." Another, " a small specimen, had 

 in its stomach a winter flounder almost as large as itself." A third 

 had " fragments of fish." The first observation is of unusual interest 

 as an evidence of what the fish may do when unsuccessful in securing 

 larger prey. 



Its search for food is by no means restricted to the bottom, how- 

 ever, for though a slow and clumsy swimmer, by stealthy approach, 

 it succeeds in surprising not only active fishes, but even birds and 

 mammals swimming on the surface. According to R. O. Couch 

 (1847), m Cornwall, it also " frequently rises to the surface of the 

 water in the summer and autumn, and lies basking in the sun." 



Its success in capturing large birds swimming on the surface, is 

 commemorated in a name most in vogue along some parts of the 

 coast (goosefish) ; several " have been known to swallow live geese." 

 A fisherman told G. Brown Goode that " he once saw a struggle in 

 the water, and found that a goose-fish had swallowed the head and 

 neck of a large loon, which had pulled it to the surface and was 

 trying to escape. There is authentic record of seven wild ducks 



