THE SEA-DEVIL. 255 



is very voracious, making little difference what the prey 

 is, either in respect to size or quality. A fisherman had 

 hooked a cod fish, and, while drawing it up, he felt a 

 heavier weight attach itself to his line ; this proved to be an 

 angler of large size, which he compelled to quit its hold by 

 a heavy blow on its head. In another instance an angler 

 seized a conger eel that had taken the hook, but after the 

 latter had been engulphed in the enormous jaws, and per- 

 haps stomach, it struggled through the gill aperture of the 

 angler, and in that situation both were drawn up together. 

 It has been known to swallow the large ball of cork em- 

 ployed as a buoy to a deep-sea line. They are very com- 

 mon in Cornwall, and we are informed that it is not an un- 

 frequent occurrence to take in a trawl-net a dozen at once.* 11 



The long filaments on the upper and anterior part of the 

 head of the angler are supposed to be of service in pro- 

 curing it subsistence. The first filament, according to 

 Mr Bailly, is supplied with twenty-two muscles, so that it 

 has the power of being moved in all directions ; " The uses 

 to which they are applied are singular. While couching 

 close to the ground, the fish, by the action of its ventrals, 

 tail, and pectorals, stirs up the mud ; hidden by the ob- 

 scurity thus produced, it elevates these appendages, moves 

 them in various directions by way of attraction as a bait, 

 and the small fishes approaching either to examine or to 

 seize them immediately fall a prey to the invidious angler." 



In the Firth of Forth the angler is frequently taken both 

 with the hook and net, and is common in almost every part 

 of the estuary. Occasionally specimens have been taken in 

 the spirling-nets as far up as Alloa, but beyond that they are 

 scarcely ever met with. The flesh is considered good, par- 

 ticularly that near the tail. 



* YarreU'a British Fishes. 



