92 VOYAGES OF A NATURALIST 



mud of the mangrove swamp, where it spends most 

 of its time, though always close to water. We 

 found it extremely difficult to obtain a specimen. 

 The fish stays quite still until one attempts to catch 

 it, when it at once makes off across the water with 

 a series of leaps, to reappear at some distance away 

 on the mud or on a dead branch lying on the water's 

 edge. Sometimes, as one walks through the 

 swamp, numbers of these fish skip away in all 

 directions, but however closely they are pursued 

 they never remain long in the water. On land the 

 pectoral fins are used as legs, and the fish is able 

 to walk with ease over the soft mud. Species of 

 this genus are found throughout the tropics. 



Early on the morning of March 3rd, 1906, we 

 left Mayotte and steamed away, bound for Diego 

 Suarez, the principal port of Madagascar. 



