THEGREATREEF 279 



The behavior of the parrotfish, however, gave the clue to 

 life on the reef. Everywhere there lurked some sort of danger. 

 Everything fed upon something else, something smaller or 

 more helpless than itself. The sand-colored flounder on the 

 sea floor, the vegetable-like anemones and worms, the garden- 

 simulating crab were all examples of deception for a purpose, 

 to hide from enemies or to catch prey more easily. Even the 

 unmoving coral trees passed their existence in a similar man- 

 ner, for the millions of tiny polyps that covered the yellow 

 branches in a living skin harbored stinging tentacles that in- 

 stantly killed the small prey that came within reach. 



In time I beean to notice that there was a definite order 

 to everything about the reef. Life was divided into rigid 

 groups or castes. The fishes that had their being near the sea 

 floor were not the same as those that flitted among the upper 

 branches of the coral trees. The sea floor group might be 

 portioned into three main classes— the munchers, like the 

 parrotfish and the triggerfish which made their living by 

 feeding quietly on the filmy vegetation that covered the 

 rocks; the probers, such as the goatfish, which seemed to 

 spend their time incessantly roaming over the sand and rocks, 

 tapping the bottom with their barbels until they located some 

 microscopic tidbit in the soil when they quickly burrowed 

 and snatched it up; and the lurkers, typified by the flounders, 

 which hid in the sand; and finally by the jewfish and groupers, 

 which concealed themselves in deep holes waiting for some 

 luckless muncher or prober to pass. 



The jewfish and groupers probably had the best system of 

 all. They are tremendously fat fishes with gaping cavernous 

 mouths. I discovered their strategy quite by accident when I 

 was watching the progress of a pair of golden angelfish. The 

 angels swam slowly by a jewfish's den. Suddenly, and quite 

 unaccountably, one of the angelfish simply disappeared. Into 



