May 4, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NE^A^S. 



419 



Natural W^mt^* 



THE ANGLER OR FISHING-FROG. 



Decidedly unprepossessing in appearance, and with a 

 wide-spreadreputationforinsatiable voracity, the angleror 

 fishing-frog can scarcely come within the category of 

 " things of beauty," but it is nevertheless one of the 

 most interesting of all the regular denizens of our 

 European seas, and it is as curious in its habits as in 

 appearance. Belonging to the order Pcdicidati, the 

 angler (Lophius piscatorius), like all the fish of that 

 order, is a bad swimmer, and passes most of its life on 

 the ocean bottom, where the peculiar arrangements of its 

 pectoral and ventral fins enable it to almost walk. It is 

 sluggish and inactive, and but seldom rises to the surface 

 of the sea. It averages about five feet in length, and has 



condemns as simply a tradition, handed down from Pliny 

 and Aristotle to the present day, and accepted only be- 

 cause no one has taken the trouble to disprove it. He 

 calls attention to the remarkable resemblance of the 

 whole structure of the fish to a submerged rock, its shape, 

 colouring, appendages, etc., all imitating with wonderful 

 fidelity the form, marking, etc., of such a boulder with 

 the natural clothing of vegetable and minute animal 

 growth, and suggests that, in all probability, the angler 

 only lies quietly prone on the ground, and when other 

 fishes approach this natural looking rock to investigate 

 into the possible harvest to be found thereon, simply 

 opens his capacious jaws and " welcomes them in," like 

 the crocodile of " Alice in Wonderland " fame. The 

 angler rejoices in a multiplicity of cognomens — fishing- 

 frog, sea-devil, frog-fish, goose-fish, and monk-fish 

 being some of the most frequently bestowed 

 sobriquets, the two last being of New England origin. 



The Angler Fish or Fishing Frog (Lophius Piscatorius). 



an enormous head, to which its comparatively little body 

 and tail seem to serve as mere appendages. Its mouth 

 is immensely wide, both upper and lower jaws being 

 furnished with long, pointed, teeth, inclined inwards, 

 which the fish is able to still further depress at will, so 

 as to offer no resistance to the swallowing of large prey. 

 All round its body and head are short fringe-like append- 

 ages, and the first three detached spines of its anterior 

 dorsal fin are elongated into long filaments, the first and 

 longest of which bears a kind of little lappet, known as 

 the angler's bait. According to Dr. Gilnther, this fish 

 possesses the chameleon-like power of assimilating the 

 colours ol its body to that of its surroundings, and it is the 

 universally accepted opinion that, by means of this 

 peculiar propert)^, aided by its waving fringes, which 

 bear some resemblance to sea-weed, it is enabled to lie 

 hidden among the stones at the sea-bottom, where it 

 practically earns its living by its own piscatorial exertions, 

 its tufted dorsal spine doing duty as rod and line. Mr. 

 S. Kent, however, strongly opposes this theory, which he 



As before remarked, this fish has a most unenviable re- 

 putation for inordinate gluttony. The fishermen of the 

 coasts where anglers most do congregate gravely assert that 

 if it cannot get food enough to satisfy the cravings of its ex- 

 tensive appetite, it will not hesitate to eat the cork buoys 

 of the nets, a statement, however, which, we think, must 

 be taken cum gmno salis, as cork buoys would seem to 

 offer considerable difficulty in the process of digestion, 

 although it certainly is a well-known fact that if a wooden 

 plank be offered to a hungry angler, the fish will in- 

 stantly snap at it and hang on by its strong, sharp teeth 

 several moments. Couch gives some most astounding 

 proofs of the rapacity of the fishing-frog, commenting at 

 the same time upon its extremely slow digestion. He 

 mentions one instance of an angler in whose stomach 

 were found no less than seventy-five herrings, and 

 another which, on being opened, was found to contain 

 twenty-one flounders and a dory, which, like the herrings 

 in the other case, were forthwith despatched to market, 

 having apparently suffered no deterioration from their 



