THE PIKE FAMILY. 209 



To return. Sometimes the Pike lies in ambush, protrud- 

 ing only its eyes and grim muzzle through the weeds, when 

 the movement of seizing a prey is little beyond a quick 

 turn of the body and an opening and shutting of the 

 jaws ; but generally he takes it with a rush and a flash, 

 emerging so suddenly and with such startling energy, 

 that I have, in more than one instance, known an 

 angler literally drop his rod from the effects of sheer 

 terror. 



In this boldness and absence of all artifice the Pike 

 offers a strong contrast to the equally voracious but cun- 

 ning and secretive Fishing-Frog, or ' Angler'*, as it is 

 named, from its habit of angling for its prey. This fish 

 is furnished with two slender tapering rays on the top of 

 the head, like fishing-rods, one of which is flattened out 

 at the end into a form resembling a bait, its attractions 

 being heightened by a shining silvery appearance. The 

 Angler, lying on the bottom, stirs up the mud with its 

 fins, and, thus concealed, elevates its bait-like appendages, 

 moving them temptingly to and fro, until a sufficient 

 number of curious spectators or intended diners have col- 

 lected, when it opens its immense mouth and at once 

 swallows them all. 



Dr. Houston, in a lecture before the Royal Society of 



Dublin, exhibited the skeleton of an Angler 2-g- feet in 



length, in the stomach of which was a cod 2 feet long ; 



inside the cod were two whitings of the natural size, con- 



* Lophius piscatorius. 



