306 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



the repeated stabs of my grains with less than effort, 

 and only when we took advantage of them with a 

 stick of dynamite was I able to name them for 

 certain, Carancc melampygiis, and to study their 

 marvellous body engine at leisure. I learned as 

 much as any instantaneous cross-section could pro- 

 vide, of which one fact only is of interest here. 

 A female with ripe ovaries was about to deposit 

 one hundred and fourteen thousand eggs. This 

 showed clearly that no matter how well able the 

 full-grown fish were to take care of themselves, 

 yet the young fry must be threatened with a host 

 of dangers to render such a number of eggs nec- 

 essary to maintain the species. To return in this 

 connection, for a moment, to another Nomad, it 

 is thoughtful to consider the devilfish which pro- 

 duces but a single young, weighing nearly thirty 

 pounds at birth. On this very trip I examined 

 such a lusty infant and could see no means of 

 defense by which it could escape the attack of a 

 barracuda or tiger shark. I should like sometime 

 to take a year off and do nothing but study the 

 life history of the devilfish. 



Once when a boy I was studying the common 

 bird life of a small city park. I looked up one 

 day and saw a brilliant parrot perched in a tree 

 overhead. The thrill which came to me then was 

 repeated when, almost on the last day of my div- 

 ing at Cocos I saw a beautiful flyingfish swimming 

 over my mushroom coral city. I had hardly regis- 

 tered it when the reason for its presence in this 

 unlikely spot was explained. A long, narrow fish 



