544 Order Pediculati: The Anglers 
attentively examined, and whereupon it will be found that 
this singular fish, throughout the whole extent of its superficies, 
may be appropriately designated a living sham.” 
It was, in the first place, observed by Mr. Kent “that 
the fish while quietly reclining upon the bottom of its tank 
presented a most astonishing resemblance to a piece of inert rock, 
the rugose prominences in the neighborhood of the head lending 
additional strength to this likeness. This resemblance being 
recognized, it was next found, on a little closer inspection, that 
the fish constituted, in connection with its color, ornamentations, 
and manifold organs and appendages, the most perfect facsimile 
of a submerged rock, with that natural clothing of sedentary 
animal and vegetable growths common to boulders lying beneath 
the water in what is known as the laminarian zone. In this 
manner the numerous simple or lobulated membranous struc- 
tures dependent from the lower jaw and developed as a fringe 
along the lateral line of the body imitate with great fidelity the 
little flat calcareous sponges (Grantia), small compound ascid- 
ians, and other low organized zoophytic growths that hang 
in profusion from favorably situated submarine stones. That 
famous structure known as the angler’s ‘rod and bait’ finds its 
precise counterpart in the early growing phase of certain sea- 
plants, such as the oarweed (Laminaria), while the more pos- 
terior dorsal fin-rays, having short lateral branchlets, counter: 
feit in a like manner the plant-like hydroid zoophytes known 
as Sertularie. One of the most extraordinary mimetic adapta- 
tions was, however, found in connection with the eyes, struc- 
tures which, however perfectly the surrounding details may be 
concealed, serve, as a rule, to betray the animal’s presence to a 
close observer. In the case of the angler, the eyes during life 
are raised on conical elevations the sides of which are separated 
by darker longitudinal stripes into symmetrical regions, the 
structure, as a whole, with its truncated summit upon which 
the pupil opens, reproducing with the most wonderful minute- 
ness the multivalve shell of a rock barnacle (Balanus). To 
complete the simile the entire exposed surface of the body of 
the fish is mapped out by darker punctated lines into irregular 
polygonal areas, whose pattern is at once recognized by the 
student of marine zoology as corresponding with that of the 
