288 BLUEFIELDS. 



In endeavouring to capture some of these little 

 fishes, a curious habit came to my knowledge. 

 Having in my hand a gauze insect-net, I clapped 

 it over a Gootoo beginning to hide itself in 

 the sand. I felt sure that 1 had it, but my servant 

 could not feel it with his hand, through the gauze, as 

 I held the ring tightly down upon the bottom of the 

 shallow water. Presently I saw, emerging from 

 under the edge of the ring, an object, that, in size, 

 form, and colour, looked exactly like a hen's egg. 

 Tlie lad instantly seized it, telling me that it was the 

 fish ; and as he held it up, I saw with surprise the abdo- 

 men tightly inflated to the dimensions described, and 

 the fish still inspiring more air with a sucking noise, 

 and motion of the mouth. To the touch it was as 

 tense as a blown bladder, and it was with difiiculty 

 that I could force it into a wide-mouthed pickle- 

 bottle of sea-water, for it filled the neck like a cork. 

 The instant, however, it touched the water in the 

 bottle, it resumed its ordinary appearance, and the 

 change of form was like the effect of magic. 



THE PIPER. 



A little further off" from the beach may be seen 

 that species of Belone*, called indiscriminately Piper 



* Perhaps B. truncata of Lesueur, or B. gerania of Cuvier and 

 Valenciennes; but the colours do not agree with those of any one of 

 the twenty-five species described by the latter zoologists. I regret 

 that the specimen preserved for comparison is lost, but the following 

 note of the colouring was made from the recent fish. Irides golden 

 (sometimes silvery) ; the iris depends in a short pointed curtain over 

 the top of the pupil. Back dark green, mottled ; edges of the jaws, 



