ANGLEE FISHES: THEIR KINDS AND WAYS. 



By Theodore Gill. 



If I should begin but to name the several sorts of strange fish . . . that run into 

 the sea, I might beget wonder in you, or unbelief, or both ; and yet I will venture to tell 

 you .... Izaak Walton (apropos of the Common Angler), Compleat Angler, chap. 19. 



Generalities. 



It is generally assumed that the capture of fishes by means of a 

 lure originated only when man had acquired a certain stage of intel- 

 ligence, but, countless myriads of j'ears before man was born, the 

 art had been developed among animals of a much lower class — fishes 

 themselves. Such animals are still existent and manifest under con- 

 siderable variety and in many species. The largest and best known 

 of the kind is the common fish especially known as the " angler." 

 This name was first used for it by Thomas Pennant in 1776, and 

 has proved to be very acceptable to most persons, but it is not entirely 

 applicable to the fish. The word angle is primarily connected with 

 the curved hook which is the chief agent in the capture of a fish, 

 but the angler fish has no hook. It has a rod and a bait, but it 

 needs no hook, for the bait attracts a victim sufficiently near to be 

 seized upon by a sudden leap of the angler. The advantage is thus 

 given by kindly nature to the ever-read}^ fish. No renewal of the 

 bait is necessary, for the angler does not wait till the approaching 

 little fish has time to nibble; no elaborate preparation of rod, line, 

 hook, and bait are needed, for the fish is always prepared; not time 

 and labor, such as taking the capture off the hook, carrying it a 

 long distance, and various details of making ready for eating, are 

 required, for all such actions are rendered unnecessary by the capac- 

 ity to take and ingest in one continuous process. 



The angler, so named by Pennant and so called by all ichthyolo- 

 gists since, is the only one of its kind frequenting the shallow seas 

 of northern Europe and northern America, but it is only one of a 

 numerous group. That group, however, is represented by species 



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