124 SOME COASTWISE FISHES. 



part of a scheme of general deception by which 

 the animal succeeds in making itself almost undis- 

 tinguishable among the rocks and grasses which it 

 inhabits. 



The angler is an exceptionally voracious fish, its 

 ungovernable appetite being well ministered to by 

 a superabundance of mouth and stomach. It is 

 stated on authority that seven wild ducks have been 

 taken from the stomach of a single one of these 

 animals. The eggs are deposited in a long float- 

 ing gelatinous ribbon measuring some thirty feet or 

 more in length, and weighing, it is said, as much 

 as forty pounds. 



The 'moon-fishes' (Selene) and 'dollar-fishes' 

 (Vomer), which can be recognized by their rounded 

 and greatly compressed upright bodies, are inter- 

 esting little animals, much appreciated for their 

 brilliant sheen. 



There are a number of long-beaked fishes found 

 on the coast, one or more of which can generally 

 be picked up in the grass-covered shoals that ex- 

 tend along a part of the shore. Among the better- 

 known of these are the pipe-fishes (Siphostoma) 

 and sea-horses (Hippocampus), which differ princi- 

 pally from one another in the shape of the body, 

 the former being greatly elongated, while the latter 

 is gracefully flexed or coiled, the head and anterior 

 part of the body recalling the knight of the chess- 

 board. The males of both species are provided 

 with peculiar pouches placed on the under surface 

 of the body, in which the eggs, deposited there by 



