212 
ANGLER. 
flexible, and which thus is caused to project for the purpose of 
lengthening the focal distance. When this muscular pressure 
is removed, the action of a small muscle attached to the 
hinder portion of the lens, the existence of which in several 
Ashes was discovered by Mr. Dalrymple, is employed to draw 
it again to its original seat. In common with some other 
kindred Ashes, the Angler is able to move its eyes in various 
directions; and I think it probable that this is effected by 
each one independent of the other, as is certainly the case 
with the Blennies. From the appearance of lines or stripes 
on the iris of the eye, there seems reason to suppose also that 
this organ is capable of contraction and expansion; by which 
means the eye may be fitted to the varying degrees of light, 
as it exists near the bottom or at the surface of the sea. 
This fish is retentive of life, so that when the skin has 
been kept moist it has been known to live out of its proper 
element for several days. 
It is known that the race of this fish is continued by means 
of spawn, as in other bony fishes; but much obscurity has 
existed in regard to the early stages of its growth, and from 
the observations of Dr. Gunther, there seems to be a founda- 
tion for the supposition that in its young condition it has 
been mistaken for a different species. To elucidate the present 
state of this question we give much at large the remarks 
which that gentleman has published, in the volume of the 
“Annals and Magazine of Natural History” for 1861, page 6, 
together with some figures; but, as regards the latter, I prefer 
to give that of a specimen formerly in the possession of Mr. 
Yarrell, and which was drawn at the time of a visit to that 
gentleman. The specimen itself appears to have been obtained 
from the Mediterranean, but it answers closely to that one 
marked C in Dr. Gunther’s Plate X. 
“Small specimens of the European species of the Fishing 
Frog, or Sea Devil, are extremely scarce in collections, and 
scarcely any attention has been paid to the remarkable changes 
in the form of the body and fins, to which' this fish is subject 
in age. Valenciennes is the only author who enters upon the 
subject at all. He says, — ‘The specimen examined is two 
inches long; the disk of its head is only one third of the 
total length; and the pectoral fins, which are as long as the 
