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Encyclopedia Britannica

ANGLER

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 15 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ANC-APO

ANGLER , also sometimes called fishing-frog, frog-fish, sea-devil (Lophius piscatorius), a fish well known off the coasts of

Great

GREAT

Britain and Europe generally, the grotesque shape of its

body

BODY

and its singular habits having attracted the attention of naturalists of all ages. To the North Sea fishermen this fish is known as the " monk," a name which more properly belongs to Rhino squatina, a fish allied to the skates. Its head is of enormous size, broad, flat and depressed, the

remainder

REMAINDER, REVERSION

of the

body

BODY

appearing merely like an appendage. The wide mouth extends
The Angler (Lophius piscatorius).
all round the anterior circumference of the head; and both jaws are armed with bands of

long

LONG, GEORGE (1800-1879)
LONG, JOHN DAVIS (1838– )

pointed teeth, which are inclined inwards, and can be depressed so as to offer no impediment to an object gliding towards the stomach, but to prevent its escape from the mouth. The pectoral and ventral fins are so articulated as to perform the functions of feet, the fish being enabled to move, or rather to walk, on the bottom of the sea, where it generally hides itself in the sand or amongst sea-

weed

WEED, THURLOW (1797—1882)

. All round its head and also along the body the skin bears fringed appendages resembling short fronds of sea-

weed

WEED, THURLOW (1797—1882)

, a structure which, combined with the extraordinary faculty of assimilating the colcur of the body to its surroundings, assists this fish greatly in concealing itself in places which it selects on account of the abundance of

prey

PREY (0. Fr. preie, mod. proie, Lat. praeda, booty, from prae and the root hed—seen in prehendere, prendere, to grasp)

. To render the organization of this creature perfect in relation to its wants, it is provided with three lohg filaments inserted along the middle of the head, which are, in fact, the detached and modified three first spines of the anterior dorsal fin. The filament most important in the

economy

ECONOMY

of the angler is the first, which is the longest, terminates in a lappet, and is movable in every direction. The angler is
ANGLESEY 15
believed to attract other fishes by means of its lure, and then to seize them with its enormous jaws. It is probable enough that smaller fishes are attracted in this way, but experiments have shown that the action of the jaws is automatic and depends on contact of the

prey

PREY (0. Fr. preie, mod. proie, Lat. praeda, booty, from prae and the root hed—seen in prehendere, prendere, to grasp)

with the tentacle. Its stomach is distensible in an extraordinary degree, and not rarely fishes have been taken out quite as large and heavy as their destroyer. It grows to a length of more than 5 ft.; specimens of 3 ft. are common. The spawn of the angler is very remarkable. It consists of a thin

sheet

SHEET

of transparent gelatinous material 2 or 3 ft. broad and 25 to 30 ft. in length. The eggs in this

sheet

SHEET

are in a single layer, each in its own little cavity. The spawn is free in the sea. The larvae are free-

swimming

SWIMMING (from " swim," A.S. swimman, the root being common in Teutonic languages)

and have the pelvic fins elongated into filaments. The British species is found all round the coasts of Europe and western North America, but becomes scarce beyond 6o N. lat.; it occurs also on the coasts of the Cape of Good

Hope

HOPE, ANTHONY
HOPE, THOMAS (c. 1770-1831)

. A second species (Lophius budegassa) inhabits the Mediterranean, and a third (L. setigerus) the coasts of China and Japan.

End of Article: ANGLER

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