2 1 8 Gleanings from the 



line-like procefles on its head, while itfelf lies con- 

 cealed in the fand ; the fecond, with its powerful 

 natural battery, by which it ftuns fim before it 

 feizes them. He alfo mentions that it has the 

 power to benumb men, as our modern fifhermen 

 fometimes find to their coft. 1 The anthias, when 

 taken, endeavours to faw the line off on the rocks, 

 juft as falmon do, when hooked in a Scotch ftream, 

 with ledges of flate. The fcolopendra has an eafy 

 mode of efcaping the hook. When it has 

 fwallowed one it turns infide out, and, fo having 

 rejected the hook, turns back again. The fox-rim 

 has another device : it choofes the line above the 

 hook for attack, bites it through, and fo efcapes ; 

 but night-lines fet with many hooks prove fatal 

 to this fifh. Of the giants, as he calls it that 

 is the filurus Ariftotle tells a ftory which has 

 actually been proved true in the cafe of the 

 common male Englifh ftickleback {gafterofteus 

 tracburus), which thus acT:s as guard to its neft, 

 and will not allow a female to approach the eggs. 2 

 " Of river fifhes, the male glanis takes great care 

 of its young. The female, having brought them 

 into exiftence, departs; but the male, noting 

 where moft of the fpawn adheres, acls as guardian 

 of the eggs, and continues to do fo, warding ofF 

 the other little fifh left they mould deftroy the 

 brood. And this it does for forty or fifty days, 

 until the brood has grown and is able to efcape 



1 For the ftatements contained in this fcftion fee a curious 

 chapter (ix. 25). 



2 See Yarrell, "Hilt, of Britifh Fifhes," ii., p. 77. 



