358 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



ally creekward, and soon find larger pools, and then still 

 larger, until again they can swim, and away they scatter 

 over the sandy bed of the beautiful creek that has served 

 them such a trick. 



The sand-perch can not always escape as easily as I 

 have described. The birds have learned at last to know 

 of the mishap that so often occurs to them, and the pur- 

 ple grakles, the red-winged blackbirds, the little bittern, 

 and the fish-crows do not fail to hasten to the bared 

 sands as the tide goes down, and cut short the career of 

 these little fish while on their forced overland journeys. 



Most curious of all, however, is the means adopted by 

 some of the fish to escape the inconvenience caused by the 

 treacherous tide and the attacks of the birds to which 

 they are at the same time subjected. With a desperate 

 wriggle they will displace a portion of sand, and burrow 

 so far downward that they reach a spot sufficiently moist 

 to sustain life, although without a drop of accessible free 

 water. Here, patiently or impatiently, one can scarcely 

 say which, they await the return of good times, of in- 

 creasing waters, of jolly high tide. Perhaps they are 

 not to be caught thus a second time, though it is pos- 

 sible that they may be ; and, if so, why is not an occurrence 

 like this the starting-point in a change of habits which 

 will ultimately result in accustoming them to mud and 

 sand, like the mud-minnow (of which more anon) ? 



The other darter, or sand-perch, common to these 

 waters is a smaller fish, so small that its presence is often 

 unsuspected. Like its cousin, the " hog-fish," it can not 

 swim more than three or four " strokes " before it has 

 either to come to a standstill, or at any rate put " one 

 foot on bottom," as boys do when learning the same art. 



While not averse to trying its fortune even in the river, 

 this little fish Olmsted's darter wanders indefinitely 



