Parrot-fishes or scarids are labroid fishes that have become adapted to a reef-dwelhng life. 

 Their teeth are joined together to form a powerful beak and at the back of the throat are tooth- 

 plates acting as rasps. They are thus able to crush shells, carapaces and the stems of madre- 

 pore corals. The name comes from their luxuriant colouring which is quite like that of the 

 forest macaws and parrots. These contrasts of colours are unexpected, but blend through 

 their very brightness. Green, blue, pink and yellow parrot-fishes with spots, bands, stripes 

 and many-coloured marblings add further enrichment to the magnificent range of coral-reef 

 colours. 



But the most typical fishes of this fabulous living-space are surely the puiler-fishes, porcu- 

 pine-fishes and box-fishes. The puffers and porcupine-fishes have a globular body and by 

 swallowing air can blow themselves out to a spherical shape, so that they float at the surface 

 like bladders. When they are going to resume their normal mid-water existence, they get 

 rid of the air they have swallowed and this takes some time. This distension raises the many- 

 rooted spines set in the skin and thus puts them on the defensive. The pufTer-fishes, (Tetrao- 

 don) have four tooth-plates, two in each jaw, while the porcupine-fishes (Diodon) have only 

 two. These strong plates enable them to browse on the coral and to break off the branches so 

 as to extract all the nutritive material. More than one pound of pulverised coral has been 

 found in the stomach of large porcupine-fishes. The appearance of all these fishes is somewhat 

 grotesque, for as well as being " puffy " their round, wide-set eyes give them a startled, surprised 

 look. Marblings and eye-spots of their colour pattern have the right sort of shades to 

 make them blend with those of the reefs. Some rather exceptional species, like the lagoceph- 

 alids, which venture into the open ocean and may even swim far away (they have been 

 found as far as Ireland), assume the colouring of pelagic fishes, having dark backs and 

 silvery flanks. The box-fishes (Osiracion) have the body enclosed in a very strong shell, formed 

 of hexagonal plates fused solidly together. This bony box is rounded, trapezoid or triangular 

 in cross section; there are often spines set above the eyes and emerging from this armour is a 

 well-muscled caudal peduncle which supports the backward-placed dorsal and anal fins and 

 acts as a propelling device. So long as they are not pursued box-fishes hardly try to move at 

 record speeds, but tend to lead a lazy and peaceful existence among the corals. Shining on 

 their brown or greenish shells are bright-blue, iridescent spots or purple or emerald ocelli. A 

 number of serrated teeth in the narrow mouth enables them to chew up polyps, worms or small 

 crustaceans. 



The narratives of the old seafarers who went " to the islands ", also tell of a nostalgia for 

 the care-free and easy life they once knew in these blissful parts of Oceania, and in the East or 

 West Indies. To their descriptions of terrestrial beauty may be added all that is conjured up 

 in the magnificence of this fairyland of coral. 



From the Nile to the Congo. 



On the walls of the Cities of the Dead, Egyptian artists drew calm and peaceful scenes to 

 recall the sweetness of earthly life to the troubled souls of the Pharaohs. To provide for the 

 needs of dead and departed kings they conjured up the wealth of food in the waters of the great 

 river, the source of all fertility. There are fishermen with their nets, lines and traps catching 

 many fishes, which are well drawn and easily recognisable. In this way the first list of Nile 

 fishes was drawn up four thousand years ago and there are few items that can be added to it. 

 This deep knowledge of aquatic life is reflected in their many hieroglyphic signs, some of which 

 are remarkable stylisations of certain fish species. Fishes were ardently worshipped in Egyptian 

 towns and they became the tutelary deities of cities. Mummies of these sacred animals were 

 ceremoniously embalmed and have been discovered centuries afterward. 



The mormyrid fishes were especially worshipped at Oxyrhynchus and the killing of one of 

 these stirred up a bloody war with the people of Cynbpolis in the first century A. D., requiring 



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