metimes the fish gobble them!"

"Can they eat birds?"

"It's a little rare," was the reply, "but there's one authentic case on
record in which a fish's stomach was found to contain no less than seven
wild ducks."

"Why, I always thought that fish had a small mouth in proportion to
their size. It must have been a monstrous big one!"

"It was not much more than four feet long," was the reply; "but it is
one of the few fishes having a huge mouth. They sometimes call it a
goosefish, because it attacks wild geese, but the right name is
fishing-frog or angler. It glides along the bottom until directly
beneath where ducks are feeding, and when one dives for worms in the
mud--you know the way ducks go down--the angler catches it by the neck
and drags it down and then swallows it at leisure. You see the bird
hasn't a chance, because all the angler-fish has to do is to hold it
until it strangles."

This led to a discussion of the food of fishes, and under the spur of
the boy's questions, the scientist outlined for him the dietary of
almost every fish that swims, together with all the various ways in
which water is aerated, such as the growth of water-plants and the
currents of streams.

"It still seems to me," said Colin, "that nearly every fish lives by
fighting some other fish. It's a wonder," he added, with a laugh, "that
there aren't some professional fighters among them."

"There are," his friend replied; "that is to say, in the sense you mean.
There's a fish which is called the fighting-fish, that is regularly
trained by the fishermen, and the combats are so famous that when one is
scheduled to come off a big crowd gathers."

"Where?" asked Colin incredulously. "That sounds a little as if you
thought I was one of the marines, Dr. Jimson."

"It is absolutely the case," was the reply. "And, what is more, they
advertise these fights widely and get big gate receipts, just like a
baseball game here. The sum of money taken in for admissions, too, has
become so large that the Crown refuses to allow the fights to be held
unless a certain percentage is paid over to the king."

"Where can that be?"

"In Siam," was the reply. "The fighting-fish is distantly related to
the perch, but it has been used for public combats for so long that it
has become highly specialized. It is really a sort of gamecock among
fish, and the money expended in licenses in Siam brings in a comfortable
revenue to the Crown. The owner of a champio