ODD MEMBERS OF THE FISH FAMILY. 
II 
occasionally they spring so high that they land upon the 
decks of ships. Some of the company did not return to us 
after their aerial flight, having fallen victims to the large 
sea birds ever on the watch for them. These fish had daz¬ 
zling silvery backs with blue heads and sides. 
“The flying guuard, with its head in a coat of mail, 
with horrible spines with trenchant blades of a beautiful 
rose color, also has fins of great size and sometimes flies 40 
yards above the water’s surface. Many times, when I 
have been sailing on the Mediterranean, in rough weather 
at night I have seen numbers of gunards by the phosphoric 
light they emit, making their arched passage in apparent 
streams of fire. 
“ But to return to the naval parade. Another division 
quickly passed. This contained some of the sportsmen of 
the sea. Here was the 
angler, or fishing frog. 
Not a beauty, he is some¬ 
times called, for his ugli¬ 
ness and voracity, the sea 
devil. This fisherman was 
about four feet long, with 
an enormous head and a 
mouth containing many 
sharp, curved teeth. By 
means of wormlike a p - 
pendages about the mouth 
and by filaments which rise from the upper part of the head, 
it attracts small fishes upon which it seizes and feeds. 
“Another sporting fish was the archer fish. He has 
the faculty of projecting drops of water with sure aim at in¬ 
sects, thereby causing them to fall into the water, where 
they are instantly seized as prey. They are six or seven 
inches long, and project a drop of water to the height of 
four or five feet. 
