MOERAKI. 193 



of flies are exposed all busy feeding on the decaying weed. 

 The number of these flies is marvellous ; they seem to form 

 living masses in suitable localities. If we drag away 

 the weed till the sand is bare we meet with crowds of 

 shore-hoppers, which skip away briskly or burrow rapidly 

 into the sand. Among these may be found large black 

 earwigs, some of the curious staphylinid beetles with their 

 short wing-cases which only cover half their bodies, and also 

 small black ants. The flies and the hoppers mainly feed on 

 the weed, though the latter are as thorough going cannibals 

 as can be met with, while the earwigs and the ants are 

 carnivorous and help themselves to the other scavengers. 



But the pools are the chief source of attraction. They 

 are seen at their best after a few days of quiet weather, 

 when the various animals which live in the shallow coastal 

 zones of the sea are tempted to come shorewards without 

 the risk of being pounded to death by the unceasing 

 pitiless surge. Shrimps and prawns of several kinds, 

 hermit-crabs, sea-slugs, and other curious denizens of the 

 deep, creep up at high-water on to the weed which covers 

 the reefs, and as the tide recedes they are left, along 

 with various species of shore fishes, in the pools. It is 

 interesting to notice how much protective colouring comes 

 into play among these creatures. The fishes of the rock 

 pools are usually blackish or dark gray with whitish stripes 

 or markings, so that when they lie still in the weed-fringed 

 clefts of the rocks they may be looked straight at without 

 being seen. It is only when they move that their presence 

 Is revealed, and then with a dart they dash through 

 the limpid water for a foot or two and again become 

 invisible. The shrimps and worms which are exposed are 

 frequently of a greenish hue so as to harmonise with 

 the prevalent weed. There is a common red shrimp also 

 found on these reefs a peculiar little species* which 

 progresses by active leaps when disturbed, but this always 

 takes care to hide under stones. Similarly, the reddish 

 worms, which are always snapped up quickly by fishes 

 when exposed, dwell mostly in tubes, and only put their 



* Betceus aequii/ianus. 



