218 AUGUST. 



colour it has being exactly that of the surrounding 

 sand. When danger comes too close, it shoots to another 

 part, and you detect that something indistinct passed 

 rapidly along ; it does not, however, habitually seek the 

 shelter of the fringing weeds, as a Prawn would, but 

 suddenly becomes still in the open space, settling close 

 down upon the sand, just as the Shrimps do. It is 

 rather harder to capture than one would suppose ; but I 

 find the surest way is to place the mouth of the net 

 obliquely on the bottom, a few inches in front of the 

 fish, without disturbing him ; then, approaching him 

 with my hand from behind, he leaps in and is secured. 

 When taken it is a pretty and attractive little species ; 

 very pellucid, showing the stomach and intestine quite 

 plainly through the muscles, as a dark mass ; and even 

 the brain, which also is darkish, probably from the 

 number and fulness of the blood-vessels which supply 

 that important organ. This apparition of the internal 

 viscera in a vertebrate animal strikes one as something 

 unusual and remarkable. 



The entire surface of this translucent and almost 

 colourless body is studded with minute specks of rust- 

 red, and with still smaller ones of opaque pale yellow, 

 which are visible only with the aid of a lens. Nothing 

 can be more sand-like than this aggregation of red and 

 yellow dots, and surely we must look upon it, in con- 



