Notes on a Visit to Fernando Noronha. 437 



several species of most brilliant colours ; one is bright yellow 

 with black transverse stripes ; another is bright blue on the 

 head and fore-part of the back, and orange towards the tail ; 

 another, again, is bright scarlet ; another, olive-green with 

 white longitudinal stripes. A curious little fish, having a 

 very short, deep, compressed body and a somewhat elongated 

 snout, was to be seen in company with those already men- 

 tioned. We observed several larger fish of a similar character ; 

 these live in deep water. One is a huge brute, about four 

 feet long and very thick in proportion, with an immense 

 head. Bonitos and others of the mackerel tribe are caught 

 here, and a beautiful, large, red fish, a species of pike, as- 

 well as some others. Numerous shoals of sardines haunt 

 the edge of the sea. On the shore a fine black and yellow 

 Murcena is very abundant, and a small gar-fish with a spike at 

 the end of its lower jaw is far from rare. A species of sting 

 ray, of immense size, and plenty of sharks may also be 

 mentioned. Our guide one day caught four or five large red 

 plectognathous fish; Ave also secured a gurnard with the 

 pectoral fins immensely enlarged like the flying variety of 

 the Mediterranean. Two or three times we saw turtle 

 swimming about, and once a small dolphin was killed. 



Other forms of marine life are, as a rule, scanty. Small 

 shrimps and Mysis-like Crustacea were hardly to be seen. 

 There are, however, a few small prawns, and a burrowing 

 lobster, with one chela much enlarged and curiously 

 shaped, a large Palinurus, and a small green Squilla. 

 Crabs are very abundant, including a white species which 

 burrows in the sand, a purple land variety living up in 

 the hills, an exceedingly active green shore crab, having a 

 small body, and long flattened legs which enable him to run 

 among the rocks near high-water mark with great quickness. 

 Other varieties live lower down ; and one, a funny whitish 

 speckled thing, something between a crab and a lobster, runs 

 at a great rate in the back wash of the waves on sandy 

 beaches. There are a few small amphipoda. The worms 

 are very poor; one is rather large, pinkish or greenish in 

 colour, with tufted red gills above each parapodium, and 

 bunches of white silky-looking setae which stick into the 



