Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . y a kind ofbeak, through which he has the power of propelling asmall drop of water with some force and considerable ac-curacy of aim. Near the edge of the water is perhaps aspray of weed, a twig, or a tuft of grass ; on it sits a fly,making its toilet in the watery mirror below. Rostratusadvances cautiously under the fly ; then he stealthily pro-jects his tube from the water, takes a deadly aim, and popgoes the watery bullet. Poor insect, what a little day of sunny bliss is thine !Knocked over b
Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . y a kind ofbeak, through which he has the power of propelling asmall drop of water with some force and considerable ac-curacy of aim. Near the edge of the water is perhaps aspray of weed, a twig, or a tuft of grass ; on it sits a fly,making its toilet in the watery mirror below. Rostratusadvances cautiously under the fly ; then he stealthily pro-jects his tube from the water, takes a deadly aim, and popgoes the watery bullet. Poor insect, what a little day of sunny bliss is thine !Knocked over by the treacherous missile, drenched, stunued,half drowned, she drops from her perch into the waters be-low, to be sucked in by the chajtodon. 3. But if we have fishes who can shoot their game, wehave also fishes who can fish for it; ay, and fish for it witlirod and line, and bait, as deftly as ever angler coaxedgudgeons from the ooze of the New River or salmon from i)2 NATURAL HISTORY READER. the flashing torrent of the Spey. Witness this clumsy-looking monster the fishing-frog, or The Angler-Fish. 4. Frightful and hideous is he, according to our vulgarnotions of loveliness, which the lophius possibly mightdisagree with. The Least is sometimes five or six feet inlength, with an enormous head in proportion to the restof its body, and with huge sacks like bag-nets attached to itsgill-covers, in which it stows its victims ; and what a cav-ernous mouth ! 5. Surely a fish so repulsive, and with a capacity sovast and apparently omnivorous, would frighten from its HIGHER LIFE IN WATERS. 93 neighborhood all other fish, and would, if its powers oflocomotion were in accordance with its size, be the terrorof the seas to fish smaller than itself ; but Providenceknoweth how to temper its gifts, and the lophius is butan indifferent swimmer, and is too clumsy to support apredatory existence by the fleetness of its motions. How,then, is this huge capacity satisfied ? Mark those t
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