Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 138, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1917 — IS MAGICIAN AMONG FISHES [ARTICLE]

IS MAGICIAN AMONG FISHES

Little Puffer Escapes From Danger by inflating Itself Until It Is Almost Spherical in Shape. It is doubtless true that there are no mermaids in the sea and no Neptune with crown and flowing locks; but the species of life that do exist there are in many ways equally as. Interesting as the mythological folk. Take the little puffer fish, for example, which has attracted the attention of scientists from earliest times on account of its shrewd habit of defending itself by Inflation. The moment it scents danger in the form of a large fish searching for a dinner It Instantly distends itself with water until It becomes almost spherical in shape, so that no ordinary fish could swallow it, says the Popular Science Monthly. Director H. C. Townsend of the New York aquarium, placed a few good-sized scup or porgies in a tank which contained a dozen young puffers about two Inches in length, which the hungry scup attacked at once. Instantly the baby puffers inflated themselves and became almost globular in form, so that the larger fish were unable to do more than knock them about like toy balloons, too large to be swallowed, and on which they cool’d get no hold, no matter how hard they tried. ——-