ACANTHOPTERYGII. 113 



been compared to Frogs, and they have received the 

 name of Fishes and Anglers, from another singular 

 part of their economy. To an enormous stomach 

 and mouth, they add an insatiable voracity, but 

 being slow swimmers, they are provided with a very 

 curious mode of taking their more active prey. On 

 the top of their head are two slender erect processes, 

 of considerable length, one of which is furnished with 

 a flattened tip hanging down, of a bright silvery hue. 

 These have great power and freedom of motion, at 

 the will of the animal. " While couching close to 

 the ground, the fish by the action of its ventral and 

 pectoral fins, stirs up the sand or mud ; hidden by 

 the obscurity thus produced, it elevates these ap- 

 pendages, moves them in various directions by way 

 of attraction as a bait, and the small fishes approach- 

 ing either to examine or to seize them, immediately 

 become the prey of the Fisher."* Mr. Couch ob- 

 serves, of our common Angler, (L. Piscatorius,) 

 "It makes but little difference what the prey is, 

 either in respect of size or quality. A fisherman 

 had hooked a cod-fish, and while drawing it up, he 

 felt a heavier weight attach itself to his line ; this 

 proved to be an Angler of large size, which he com- 

 pelled to quit its hold, by a heavy blow on its head, 

 leaving its prey still attached to the hook. In 

 another instance, an Angler seized a Conger Eel 

 that had taken the hook; but after the latter had 

 been engulphed in the enormous jaws, and perhaps 

 stomach, it struggled through the gill-aperture of the 



* Yarrell. 



