28o I N A G U A 



thin air— or water— as it were. I blinked and looked at the 

 jewfish. It had not moved a muscle and yet I could have sworn 

 that I saw the angelfish vanish into its mouth. I waited pa- 

 tiently for another victim. Soon a demoiselle with a brilliant 

 yellow tail came near. It passed within three feet, stopped to 

 feed at a sea fan, and then turned back again. This was its un- 

 doing, for it came close to the cavernous mouth. Abruptly and 

 without warning, it was sucked into the swaying jaws. Then I 

 knew what had happened. The jewfish was operating an un- 

 derwater vacuum cleaner! I saw it clearly. The fish merely 

 opened wide its tremendous gill flaps, creating a suction into 

 the yawning mouth. The jaws snapped shut and the demoi- 

 selle was no more. 



Quite in contrast to the bottom fishes were those that hung 

 in mid-water well up into the interstices of the coral. There 

 were numerous sergeant-majors, little fellows striped vividly 

 in jet black and yellow like off -colored barber poles. These 

 filtered in and out among the branches along with a few score 

 silver moonfish, a host of bright blue tang and some azure 

 Beau-gregorys. These Beau-gregorys were the bravest fishes 

 on the reef. Certain little portions of the coral they claimed as 

 their very own, and these they guarded as territory inviolate. 

 One of the tang, which resembled nothing so much as flat 

 blue dinner plates which had fantastically become equipped 

 with fins and taken to an underwater existence, ventured too 

 near a branch of coral which a Beau-gregory had appropri- 

 ated. With fins bristling with rage the midget dashed out and 

 attacked the tang. The larger fish, much to my surprise, turned 

 tail and fled. 



A few minutes later I saw this same Beau-gregory coura- 

 geously assail a Spanish mackerel which was fully twenty times 

 its size and which was armed with a long row of sharp teeth. 

 The mackerel almost seemed to have a look of hurt surprise. 



