HOW FISHES FEED. 93 



whom the struggle for life has told adversely. 

 Keen competition and the consequent stimulus 

 of hunger have developed a certain low cunning 

 and deception, shared even by the "lord of 

 Creation," man himself. Some others of the 

 past-masters of this art of deception we will pass 

 in review now. One of the chief of these is the 

 "angler-fish" or "sea-devil," of which we may 

 take a very widely distributed form {Lophius 

 piscatorius) as an example. This species is found 

 all round the coasts of Europe, Western North 

 America, and the Cape of Good Hope. It has 

 an enormous flattened head, with a huge mouth, 

 and a tapering body. Around this head project 

 numerous short loose appendages resembling 

 little bits of sea-weed. From the middle of the 

 head there arise three or four slender stalk-like 

 and freely movable shafts, the foremost of 

 which bears a little flag-like blade. As this 

 monster lies close and quiet at the bottom the 

 flag-like pieces of sea-weed-like skin along the 

 head and sides of the trunk tend to divert 

 suspicion from the body, whilst the foremost 

 spine, with its attached "flag," is slowly waved 

 about. Little fishes in the neighbourhood gather 

 round this flag, and whilst busily engaged in 

 inspecting it, and speculating on its probable 

 palatability, are suddenly engulfed, being sucked 

 in by the mere opening of the huge mouth, till 

 now concealed. There are some anglers who 

 hold that fish have no curiosity ! It is interest- 

 ing, but puzzling, to note that in young angler- 

 fish all the elongated dorsal spines are beset with 

 lappets of skin, and that the fins are much longer 



