The Wit of the Wild 

 1 



this manner, but drum up their prey. Thus 

 the African saddle-billed stork runs about in 

 shallow water and then strikes at the fish that 

 try to escape past it; while an ibis of Ceylon 

 stirs up the bottom with its foot and then picks 

 one after another the mudfish that are aroused. 



Many animals, however, improve upon the 

 methods described by setting traps and using 

 decoys and lures of one sort or another to at- 

 tract prey to them. Familiar to most students 

 is the method of the goose-fish, or angler, a big, 

 repulsive, voracious fish of our coast, which 

 dwells at the bottom in shallow water, half 

 smothered in mud no blacker than its own body. 

 From the top of the lips of this fish there stands 

 up a feeler several inches in length which trem- 

 bles in the water like a tasseled whiplash. This 

 is sure to attract the eye of small fishes cruis- 

 ing about, who mistake it for a bug or some- 

 thing else fit to eat, and will dart at it, only 

 to find themselves seized by the horrid mouth 

 that lies beneath. 



In a similar way the puma (or panther) gets 

 itself many a meal otherwise difficult of attain- 

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