PEDICULATL 75 



compels it to gratify by stratagem. During the summer and autumn it resides 

 near the shore, where by means of its pectoral fins, it forms for itself a cavity 

 in the sand, or should the ground be rough, it lies as if dead, where its floating 

 filaments, kept in motion by the tide, decoy other fish, and the angler's tendril is 

 no sooner touched than the game is caught. They swallow shell fish, and in fact 

 almost any substance not too large. At times, however, even these stratagems fail 

 in obtaining for them sufficient nourishment, and then they have been known to 

 leave the bottom seeking for food at a higher elevation. Couch mentions how a 

 fisherman had hooked a cod-fish, and while drawing it up he felt a heavier 

 weight attach itself to his line, which proved to be an angler of large size, and 

 only relaxed its hold on receiving a heavy blow on the head. On another 

 occasion one seized a hooked conger eel, Conger vulgaris, the latter struggled 

 until it obtained an exit through the gill opening of the angler, and both 

 were thus drawn up together. They will even come to the surface* and 

 gorge anything they imagine may be useful as food. Mr. Blake-Knox recorded 

 how one of these fishes was brought to him with a cormorant, Phalacrocorax 

 carbo, in its throat, which had been swallowed as far as its shoulders : the bird 

 struggled, and both were seen on the surface of the water and captured. In 

 another instance the same exhibition was witnessed, the bird being a gull, Larus 

 argentatus, that measured nearly 4^ feet from tip to tip of its wings, but as the 

 angler's capacity was limited, it being only 3 feet long, the bird's feet, tail, and 

 ends of its wings projected from the fish's mouth, causing the latter to be choked. 

 An angler has been seen to seize a northern diver, Colymbus gracialis, and the two 

 were secured by a fisherman while they were struggling for mastery. An entire 

 and perfectly fresh widgeon, Anas penelope, has been taken from inside one at 

 Belfast, while a similar occurrence has been recorded from Youghal, with this 

 difference, that the bird was said to be alive. They have also been known to 

 devour guillemots, JJria troile, and razor-bills, Alca tor da, and would doubtless 

 swallow any bird they could capture. They are not always discriminating as to 

 the substances which they engulf, one has been known to swallow a large block 

 of granite, used as an anchor-stone for fishing, it was however covered with blood, 

 slime, and fish-scales (Zoologist, 1865, p. 9470). A few years since one gorged 

 the white-washed cork buoy of a crab-pot, and from its being unable to sink 

 again with it, became strangled and was so caught.f Skates, gurnards, and 

 various fishes have been taken from their stomachs. Pennant among these 

 included the dog-fishes, and for this reason he remarks that in his time the 

 fishermen near Scarborough returned those captured to the sea. Parnell says 

 that some fishermen at Queensferry, seeing the water much discoloured at a 

 particular spot near the shore, poked the bottom with a long-handled mop : an 

 angler seized it, and before it could disengage its teeth, was hauled into the boat. 

 It measured 4 feet 9 inches in length. Mr. Todhunter observed an angler 

 in shallow water near the shore at Youghal, and presented the butt end of his 

 whip to it, this it seized and held on to so firmly that it was actually dragged on 

 shore. Johnston relates how one of these fishes, having been left on the beach 

 by a receding tide, a fox came along searching for provender ; chancing to thrust 

 his nose inside the jaws of the angler, they closed, and thus reynard was held 

 until observed by passers by. Thompson tells us that these fishes are frequently 

 killed at Keem in Achil by the receding waves carrying back quantities of sand, 

 which getting into their mouths, disables them, and being thus seen from the 

 shore, they are, in their extremity, approached and despatched with pitchforks. 



Their muscular pectoral fins enable them to creep along the ground, 

 consequently they are able to move about without agitating the water, as they 

 would have to do were it necessary to use their tails for progression. Rondelet 

 asserted that they live for a long time after their removal from the water : Cuvier 

 considered the contrary to be the case, while Couch observed that when the skin 



* Mr. R. Conch states that the Lophius " frequently rises to the surface of the water in the 

 summer and autumn, and lies basking in the sun." 

 f R. Couch, Zoologist, 1847, p. 1609. 



