Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/380

Rh . 2.—Young Angler taken out of the egg just previous to hatching. [After A. Agassiz.)

and was trying to escape." There is authentic record of seven wild ducks having been taken from the stomach of one of them. Slyly approaching from below, they seize birds as they float upon the surface. Reliable Cape Cod fishermen, Captains Nathaniel E. Atwood and Nathaniel Blanchard, assured Dr D. H. Storer that "when opened entire sea-fowl, such as large gulls, are frequently found in their stomachs, which they supposed them to catch in the night, when they are floating upon the surface of the water." Dr Storer was also informed by Captain Leonard West, of Chilmark, Mass., that he had known a Goose-fish to be taken having in its stomach six coots in a fresh condition. These he considered to have been swallowed when they had been diving to the bottom in search of food.

Any one who has looked into the vast cavity behind the jaws of this fish will concede the aptness of the name "Allmouth." The fish is a most voracious, carnivorous animal—indeed omnivorous—and quite indiscriminate in its diet. In Massachusetts it is said to annoy the fishermen "by swallowing the wooden buoys attached to the lobster pots," and a man is stated to have caught one "by

. 3.—Young Angler not long after hatching; the yolkbag has entirely disappeared. (After A. Agassiz.)

using his boat anchor for a hook." Another feature of the fish is the slowness of its digestive powers, which is aptly illustrated by Couch, who says that on one occasion there were found in the stomach of this fish "nearly three-quarters of a hundred herring; and so little had they suffered change that they were sold by the fishermen in the market without any suspicion in the buyer of the manner in which they had been obtained."

The name "Angler" is not one in general use among shoremen and fishermen. It is a book name, and was specially coined for the Lophius piscatorius by Thomas Pennant in 1776. In his British Zoölogy he says he "changed the old name of Fishing-frog for the more simple one of Angler" simply because he did not like the former, which was one of the popular names. There was no lack, however, of other popular names from which to choose. In England

Fig. 4.—Young Angler with 2 elongated dorsal rays and rudiment of third and 2 large ventral rays. (After A. Agassiz.)

the fish was known as the Fishing-frog, Frog-fish, Toad-fish, Pocket-fish, Monk-fish, Nass-fish, Sea-devil, Devil-fish, Wide-gut, Wide-gap, and Kettlemaw, and in America still other names were employed. On the Massachusetts coast it was known as the Goose-fish, in Rhode Island as the Bellows-fish, in Connecticut as the Molly-gut, and in North Carolina as the All-mouth.

Although the Angler in its adult form is familiar to the fishermen of most countries under some of its various names, little or nothing was