338 MARKETABLE BRITISH MARINE FISHES 



of the fish naturally suggests a fisherman's line with a bait on 

 the end, it is by no means certain that there is anything parti- 

 cularly attractive to other fishes in this tentacle or its membrane. 

 But, on the other hand, it is certain that the concealment of the 

 fish, on account of its colour and appearance, is very perfect ; it 

 cannot be distinguished from a boulder or a piece of rock with 

 bits of seaweed and other growths attached to it. Mr. Saville 

 Kent stated, from observations in the Brighton aquarium, that 

 when the angler saw fish in its neighbourhood it became excited 

 and agitated its tentacle, the " glittering piece of skin " at the 

 end of which served as a lure. I have seen nothing that could 

 be described as glittering in the appendage of the tentacle : 

 in the dead fish, at least, it is a thin flexible piece of skin of a 

 whitish or light-grey colour, dull and not glistening. At the 

 base there is a black spot on each side of the end of the stalk. 

 The membrane is divided at its further edge into two parts by a 

 deep cleft, and the edge of each part is slightly divided by 

 smaller clefts. The stalk is curved at its outer end, so that the 

 membrane hangs downwards. It is true that anything moving 

 in the water will attract the attention of fishes that hunt by sight. 

 But another and perhaps more important use of the tentacle is 

 indicated by some experiments made during the Irish Survey by 

 Mr. Lane, and mentioned in Mr. Holt's Report (Scientific 

 Proc. Royal Dublin Society, vol. vii. part 4, p. 459). Mr. Lane 

 found that when he touched the top of the erected tentacle 

 with a stick the fish at once snapped with his jaws, so as to 

 catch exactly that part of the stick which had touched his 

 tentacle. This was repeated man}' times, until the fish was 

 exhausted. It is evident that this automatic and precise 

 mechanism of sensitive nerve and jaw-muscles must be most 

 effective in the capture of the angler's prey. It is a spring-trap 

 of the most certain action, always set, and never betraying its 

 nature. Any fishes swimming near the ground are liable to 

 touch the tentacle of an angler, which cannot be distinguished 

 from the most innocent and insignificant frond of weed or stem 

 of zoophyte, and to touch it is certain and immediate death. 



Breeding. Day mentions that the eggs in a female 4^ feet 

 long were computed to be nearly a million and a half, and 

 that the spawn, according to Baird, the founder of the United 

 States Fish Commission, was a floating sheet of mucus 60 



