COASTAL FISH 



135 



At low water, mud- 

 skippers gambol about 

 on exposed mud-flats 

 and mangrove roots. 

 When disturbed they 

 hide in mud-holes, as 

 in the background. 



The mud-skippers belong to the gobies, a large family of small fish 

 which are extremely characteristic of shallow water, both in Europe 

 including Denmark, where we have 10 species, and in the Tropics, where 

 there are many more. In South Africa, which is only partly tropical, there 

 are 42 known species. Most of the species resemble our native gobies, 

 easily recognizable by their pelvic fins, which are united to form a kind 

 of sucking-disc. But there are also more divergent forms, such as the al- 

 most eel-shaped Trypauchen, which lives buried in the sandy bed or 

 among shingles, and which we found in the Java Sea. 



The mud-skipper calls to mind another group of small fish; namely, 

 the blennies. Their nearest relative with us is the little butterfish, or gun- 

 nel (Pholis gunellus), though the family to which this belongs is not 

 represented in warm seas. The favourite haunts of blennies are among 

 rocks, and the easiest places in which to find them are rock pools at low 

 tide. These are the haunts of many small fish, both swimming kinds like 

 horse-mackerel, wrasse, and bass, and various blennies which will be 

 found peeping out from underneath a rock. Try to catch them and they 

 will often dart out of the water, a crowd of them together, and skip away 

 across the rocks. In Britain they are popularly known as skippers or rock- 

 hoppers. Several of them, in fact, spend a large proportion of their time 

 on the shore, like the mud-skippers, to which some species bear a close 

 resemblance, for example in the prominent eyes, which some can move 



