32 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



near to her ; and the cuttle-fish, being then hid in the gravel, 

 lets the smaller fish nibble and bite the end of it, at which time 

 she by little and little draws the smaller fish so near to her, that 

 she may leap upon her, and then catches and devours her : and 

 for this reason some have called this fish the sea-angler.* 



And there is a fish called a hermit,t that at a certain age gets 

 into a dead fish's shell, and like a hermit dwells there alone, 

 studying the wind and weather, and so turns her shell, that she 

 makes it defend her from the injuries that they would bring upon 

 her. 



There is also a fish called, by ^Elian, in his ninth Book of 

 Living Creatures, ch. 16, the Adonis,:]: or Darling of the Sea; so 

 called, because it is a loving and innocent fish, a fish that hurts 

 nothing that hath life, and is at peace with all the numerous 

 inhabitants of that vast watery element ; and truly I think most 

 anglers are so disposed to most of mankind. 



And there are also lustful and chaste fishes, of which I shall 

 give you examples. 



And first, what Du Bartas says of a fish called the sargus : 

 which because none can express it better than he does, I shall 



* The cuttle-fisli, which is not properly a fish, but of the class MoUusca, 

 is confounded by Walton liere with the Lophius Piscatorius, common 

 angler, toad-fish, sea-frog, sea-devil. See Donovan, British Fishes, vol. 

 v., plate ci. Donovan lias overlooked this passage in Walton, when he 

 says the name of sea-an2;ler is of modern origin. Walton probably copied 

 from Montaigne, but this trait of the cuttle-fish is given in Plutarch, De 

 Solcrtia Animarnnn, and in Oppian, Hal., xi., 192-200, Jones's Translation. 

 The art employed by this fish in taking its prey has been doubted by some 

 naturalists, but not by Tennant, or Donovan, or Yarrell, who says : " On 

 the head are two long filaments, . . . which have great freedom of motion 

 in any direction. . . . They are of bone covered by the common skin, and 

 very delicate organs of touch. . . . When couching close to the ground, 

 the' fish by the action of its fins stirs up the mud; hidden by the obscurity 

 thus prodiiced, it raises the filaments, moves them in various directions by 

 way of bait, and as the small fish come near they become its prey. . . . 

 This design of the angler is not more wonderful than that of the spider," 

 &,c., vol. i., .30.'). Aristotle testifies to the same thing; as does St. Am- 

 brose in his HexeEineron, when speaking of fish. — Am. Ed. 



t Oppian (.Jones), i.. 4'.)G-.'320.-.'?/n. Ed. 



\ The ancients delight in the praise of this fish. It was a sort of bar- 

 bel. Oppian, i., 2.')7 ; v., 307. — Am. Ed. 



