314 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



medium and small Percolators, the most brilliant 

 being wrasse, with unbelievably harsh and gorgeous 

 pigments and patterns. Thallasoma, or the 

 pousse-cafe fish, with its purple and yellow and 

 green stripes, always formed a large percentage 

 of the crowd of fish whirling about my hand and 

 helmet when I held a bit of crab as lure. Derma- 

 tolepis, the big, high-backed, golden-spotted sea 

 bass, must be considered as giant Percolators, for 

 they were always trying to push through crevices 

 and archways too small for them. They were ugly- 

 natured as well as bold, and needed only a little 

 more courage to attempt to ham-string me when 

 I was not looking. As they became angry or over- 

 excited they showed their spleen or nervousness 

 by changing color, thinking nothing of shifting 

 from white to black, always with the yellow gold 

 spangles shining clear. At the other end of perco- 

 late size were the tiny Runulus, midget eelet 

 wrasses, who eddied in and out between my fingers 

 without my ever succeeding even in touching them. 

 When I tell that within a few minutes after tak- 

 ing my coral throne, I often had five hundred Per- 

 colators swimming close about me, the vast num- 

 bers of my subjects (if not their loyalty other than 

 gastronomic) may be realized. 



Two more castes remain, the Squatters and the 

 Villagers — ^my favorites of all my fish. They were 

 of greatest interest when compared with one an- 

 other, for while the latter had individual crevice 

 homes, yet they were built along normal fish lines, 

 while the Squatters, although they might spend 



