364: ANIMAL STUDIES 



of predatory insect called a "praying-horse" (allied to the 

 genus Mantis), found in India, has the shape and color of 

 an orchid. Small insects are attracted and fall a prey to it. 

 Certain Brazilian fly-catching birds have a brilliantly colored 

 crest which can be displayed in the shape of a flower-cup. 

 The insects attracted by the apparent flower furnish the fly- 

 catcher with food. An Asiatic lizard is wholly colored like 

 the sand upon which it lives except for a peculiar red fold 

 of skin at each angle of the mouth. This fold is arranged 

 in flower-like shape, " exactly resembling a little red flower 

 which grows in the sand." Insects attracted by these 

 flowers find out their mistake too late. In the tribe of 

 fishes called the " anglers " or fishing frogs the front rays 

 of the dorsal fin are prolonged in shape of long, slender fila- 

 ments, the foremost and longest of which has a flattened 

 and divided extremity like the bait on a hook. The fish 

 conceals itself in the mud or in the cavities of a coral reef 

 and waves the filaments back and forth. Small fish are at- 

 tracted by the lure, mistaking it for worms writhing about 

 in the water or among the weeds. As they approach they 

 are ingulfed in the mouth of the angler, which in some of 

 the species is of enormous size. One of these species is 

 known to fishermen as the "all-mouth." These fishes 

 (Lopliius piscatorius), which live in the mud, are colored 

 like mud or clay. Other forms of anglers, living among 

 coral reefs, are brown and red (Antennarius), their colora- 

 tion imitating in minutest detail the markings and out- 

 growths on the reef itself, the lure itself imitating a worm 

 of the reef. In a certain group of deep-sea anglers, the sea- 

 devils (CeratiidcB)) certain species show a still further spe- 

 cialization of the curious fishing-rod. In one species ((70- 

 rynolophus reinhardti) (Fig. 156), living off the coast of 

 Greenland at a depth of upward of a mile, the fishing-rod 

 or first dorsal spine has a luminous bulb at its tip around 

 which are fleshy, worm-like streamers. At the abyssal 

 depths of a mile, more or less, frequented by these sea- 



