BAITED HOOKS. 91 







Perhaps the best instance of this deception, is that which is 

 practised by . sundry Polynesian tribes. They have seen that the 

 Coryphene or Dorado, and other similar fish, are in the habit of 

 preying upon the flying-fish, and springing at them when they 

 are tolerably high in the air. So these ingenious semi-savages 

 dress up a hook made of bone, ormer-shellj and other materials, 

 making the body of it into a rudely designed form of a fish. 

 A hole is bored transversely through it at the shoulders, and a 

 bunch of stiff fibres is inserted to represent the wings. Another 

 bunch does duty for the tail. 



The imitation bait being thus complete, it is hung to a long 

 and slender bamboo rod, which projects well beyond the stern 

 of a canoe, and is so arranged that the hook is about two feet or 

 so from the surface. The Coryphene, seeing this object skim- 

 ming along, takes it for a flying-fish, leaps at it, and is caught 

 by the hook. There, are in several collections specimens of these 

 ingenious hooks, and I possess one which is made on similar 

 principles, but intended for use in the water, and not in the air. 

 It is, in fact, a " spoon-bait." 



One point of ingenuity must be mentioned, as it really belongs 

 to the principle of the bait. These same savages, having 

 noticed that large sea-birds are in the habit of hovering over 

 the flying-fish, and would probably be seen by the Coryphenes, 

 rig up a very long bamboo rod, tie to its end a large bundle 

 of leaves and fibres, and then fix it in the stern of the boat, the 

 sham bird being hung some twenty feet above the sham fish. 

 There is a refinement of deception here, for which we should 

 scarcely give such savages their due credit. 



IN Art, then, we bait our hooks either with real or false food, 

 and so attract the fish. 



In Nature we have a most accomplished master of the art of 

 baiting, who has the wonderful power of never needing a 

 renewal of his bait. A glance at the left-hand figure of the 

 next illustration will show that I allude to the Angler-fish, 

 sometimes called the Fishing-frog (Lophius piscatorius). This 

 remarkable creature has a most enormous mouth, and -compara- 

 tively small body. On the top of its head are some curious 

 bones, set just like a ring and staple, so as to move freely in 

 every direction. A figure of this piece of mechanism will be 



