544 REV. S.J. WHITMEE ON THE GENUS ANTENNARIUS. [Noy. 2, 
kindly determined the present individual, which I have sent to the 
British Museum, as A. coccineus (Less.). 
The fish is found sticking to corals and stones on the reefs of 
Upolu, and is very difficult to distinguish from the coral or stone. 
Its Samoan name is La’ otali. 
As this fish was brought to me alive, I kept it in an aquarium 
in my study for a few days to observe its habits. It was brought 
in a cocoa-nut shell with very little water; and its stomach was 
greatly distended with air. When put into the aquarium it was 
some minutes before it could sink. It struggled hard to get down, 
and as the air was discharged it went down, and immediately attached 
itself, in a vertical position, toa block of coral by means of its pectoral 
and ventral fins. These were distended, and looked very much as if 
they served the purpose of sucking-disks (like the united ventrals in 
some of the Gobiide) as well as answering in place of feet. When 
attached it held on very firmly, and I had a difficulty in disengaging 
it. Natives have told me that they have taken up a block of coral 
with this fish attached, and have had great difficulty in shaking it off. 
After being in the water a few minutes my fish moved from its 
first position and, apparently, sought one better adapted to its 
. habits. It cut _a poor figure when attempting to swim, and prepared 
to walk where it could. It again fixed itself, in a vertical position 
with the head up, in an indentation in a coral block which pretty 
well matched its size. When attached it looked much like the block 
itself, the cutaneous tentacles and ocellated spots greatly resembling 
the fine seaweed and coloured nullipores with which the dead por- 
tions of corals and stones are more or less coated in these seas. As I 
watched it I could not help thinking that this fish presents us with 
what we now call (since Mr. Bates introduced the term) “mimicry.” 
Being a slow swimmer and ‘carnivorous, it has to get its food by 
stratagem. Hence the advantage of those characteristics which 
make it so grotesque in appearance—wide vertical mouth, rough 
and spotted skin with cutaneous tentacles, and the anterior dorsal 
spine modified into a soft tentacle. 
T had positive evidence that the example in question was carni- 
vorous. A short time after it had been put into the aquarium it 
vomited a slightly decomposed fish 1 inch 5 lines in length. This 
was one of the small fishes always seen in great abundance about the 
coral patches, nibbling at the fine seaweeds and the growing points 
of the corals. The capture of such fishes when unconsciously 
approaching it would, I believe, be greatly facilitated by the strong 
current produced when this Antennarius sucks the water into its 
capacious jaws. From its vertical position when fixed on a stone, 
the jaws open horizontally ; and they are very wide. When examin- 
ing the fish I placed it in a basin with about a pint of water. So 
much water was drawn into its jaws and expelled with such force 
through the foramina, which are directed backwards behind the 
pectorals, that a rapid rotatory motion was produced in all the 
water. This, I imagine, would be sufficient to engulf many a 
small fish or crustacean within its stomach. 2 
