180 ON THE COMMON WHITING OF MORETON BAY 



fish moves under his foot he stamps his foot down to hold it 



there, and then picks it up with his hand. Often as many as a 

 dozen fish are so taken which had otherwise escaped the foot- 

 rope of the net. Very small whiting, an inch and a-half long, 

 have the trick. When burying the whiting throws up its tail, 

 and actually takes a header into the sand using its tail fin 

 vigorously. Once the head is under, it appears to throw up like 

 a diver, and when buried has got into a horizontal position. 

 The whiting can remain down for 2 or 3 minutes. On an 

 ordinary sand flat, a whiting can bury itself to a depth of from 

 3 to 4 inches, but on a hard sand beach, it can hardly cover 

 itself. The eyes, in such a case, show plainly against the sand, 

 but immediately the net has passed over, the fish is up and 

 away. 



When taken the whiting often makes a short, croaking, 

 frog-like sound — whence the name trumpeter. 



Food. 



A common article of diet is a small perch, Amhnssis 

 mariatius,'-' which abounds in Moreton Bay. It is usually about 

 l^in. long, though the giants of tbe race attain a length of 4in., 

 and may be seen in shoals near every jetty in the Bay. 



Two species of Crustacea are favourite food of the whiting, 

 one the common soldier crab, Mi/cteris lonyicarpus, and the other 

 locally known as the sand lobster, CaUianassn sp. or an allied 

 form (pi. XII., fig. 4). The soldier crab can burrow corkscrew 

 fashion into the sand to escape attack, and the sand lobster lives 

 for the most part in a network of tubes it has excavated in the 

 sand, though in warm weather it is said to come to the surface. 



Another item in the food list is evidently considered by the 

 whiting to be a tit-bit. It is the proboscis of a spoon -worm 

 (pi. XII., fig. 3.) . This worm lives in sand with which there is 

 a good deal of mud. The b )dy is from 9in. to a foot down, but 

 the spoon or proboscis is sent up to feel round for food. The 

 tube, in which the worm lives, opens usually about the middle 

 of a slight hollow on the sand surface. In this depression, 

 about Gin. of the proboscis is moved slowly about lying flat out 

 from the mouth of the tube. The proboscis is very extensile, 

 and very sensitive and can be withdrawn with great rapidity on 

 the approach of danger. It is very interesting to watch a 



*Kind]y identified for me by Mr. J. Douglas Ogilby. 



