The National Geographic Magazine 



it was difficult to distinguish the head 

 of the fish from a piece of rock covered 

 with sea - weed, calcareous sponges 

 (Grantia compressa), ascidians, zo- 

 ophytes, and the other low invertebrate 

 forms which are usually to be seen on a 

 rocky shore at low tide. The nasal ap- 

 pendage appeared to be the facsimile of 

 a young frond of oar- weed {Laminaria 

 digitata) ; but the most extraordinary 

 mimicry of all appeared — where we 

 would least expect it — in the creature's 

 eyes ! Saville Kent says : 



" We have here in this fish, then, the 

 most perfect possible embodiment of a 

 rocky boulder, with its associated animal 

 and vegetable growths. 



' 1 Lying prone at the bottom of the 

 ocean among ordinary rocks and debris, 

 it might well pass muster as an inani- 

 mate object, and the other fish on which 

 it preys would approach it with im- 

 punity, and never discover their mistake 

 until too late to escape from its merci- 

 less jaws. 



" Ensconce the animal snugly, how- 



FiG. 8. — Young Angler with most of the characteristics of adults, but larger pectorals and 

 ventrals and less flattened head. (After Riippell.) 



' ' These organs are very large and 

 prominent, the iris being conical in 

 shape, of a yellow ground color, with 

 longitudinal stripes of a darker shade, 

 while the pupil, commencing abruptly 

 at the summit, is of so jetty a hue that 

 the aspect of the whole is that of a hol- 

 low truncated cone, resembling, with 

 its longitudinal stripes, the deserted 

 shell of an acorn barnacle, and with an 

 amount of exactness that is apparent 

 to the most ordinary observer. 



ever, in the crevice of some precipitous 

 submarine cliff, and the illusion is more 

 perfectly complete. No strategy need 

 now be exerted by the voracious fish to 

 attract his prey ; he has only to lie close 

 and quiet, letting his tendrils sway to 

 and fro in the passing current like the 

 weeds around him, and the shoals will 

 approach browsing the vegetation or 

 pursuing their crustaceous diet — right 

 i?ito his very mouth." 



H. A. L. 



