210 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



taming in their turn scores of half-digested fish too small 

 and numerous to be counted. ( Angling ' would therefore 

 appear to be a successful method of procuring food. 



Another fish, the Star-gazer (Uranoscopus scaber), has 

 recourse to a similar device, waving about in the mud 

 the beards with which his lips are furnished, and which are 

 mistaken for worms a stratagem also adopted by the great 

 Silurus glanis, or ' Sly/ the largest of the European fresh- 

 water species. This fish, according to Agassiz, exhibits 

 a notable instance of parental affection. "The male 

 Glanis," he says, " is conspicuous amongst river-fishes for 

 the great care it takes of its young : for the female, having 



SLY SILUBUS. 



brought forth, departs ; but the male remains watching by 

 the eggs for forty or fifty days to keep off the attacks of 

 other fishes, which he does by rushing movements, and 



