FISHES. 285 



and rarely descends. The Mullets are very hardy, living 

 sometimes uninjured when other animals die from impurity 

 in the water. Keeping near the surface, which becomes 

 better aerated than lower down, and frequently taking 

 mouthfulls of air by putting their noses out of water, they 

 keep themselves supplied with what proportions of the dif- 

 ferent gases are most conducive to their health. Their 

 restless activity in swimming to and fro, showing off their 

 bright silvery stripes, renders them pretty and lively tenants 

 of their watery cage. 



Lepidogaster bimaculatus. 



Another little tadpole-shaped fish, commonly known as 

 the " Tivo Spotted Sit,cl-er,'' w^iich, like the Goby, has its 

 ventral fins united in a sucking disc. It is prettily co- 

 loured with pale red, with a deep red spot on each side. 

 It does not poise its body steadily in the water, nor swim 

 with the gliding motion of other fishes, but first adhering 

 to one surface, and staying there for a short time, suddenly 

 darts a little way off and adheres to another, or else crawls 

 with a clumsy, wriggling motion. But the greater part of 

 its time is spent in stillness, fixed to a particular spot, and 

 probably feeding on animalcules. 



