THE LITTORAL AND MARINE FAUNA 325 



being covered with a thick armour of very large and beautiful 

 green scales, but its armour is useless as protection against 

 the spear of the Cocos-born Malay. It may be either speared 

 or taken on the line, and in the latter case it is usually 

 killed in about 6 or 8 fathoms of water with a Kapeting 

 halong as the bait. In the stomachs of those Green fish that I 

 have opened, there have been, in addition to the legs and 

 shells of crabs, large numbers of the spikes of sea-urchins ; and 

 for the proper mastication of these hard objects the fish is 

 provided with a remarkable grinding-mill situated far back in 

 its gullet. The teeth that are set round the jaws of the Green 

 fish are peg-top teeth, used only for picking up its food from 

 the crevices in the rocks ; all the grinding of the hard parts of 

 its spiny victims is carried on by the gullet mill, which consists 

 of knobs of bone studded over with enamel-covered bosses. 



The Green fish grows to a great size, one of 200 pounds 

 in Aveight not being a very exceptional fish, and with increasing 

 size the delicacy of the flesh as an article of food does not 

 diminish, but rather improves. 



There are several relations of the Green fish, the 

 Dongol being the finest of them, but this fish is not to be 

 taken on the line, for it lives in the tumble of the rousrhest 

 barrier water. Great shoals of them swim along the barrier 

 rocks and. feed upon the Nullipores which clothe the boulders, 

 and though the natives can spear them in the breakers, I was 

 never successful in stopping one with a rifle bullet. The 

 Kakatua, however (of which there are several species all 

 belonging to the genus Scarus), may be shot with cased bullets 

 with comparative ease, and fish-shooting in the tumbling surf 

 of the barrier was one of my most delightful occupations in 

 the atoll. The many Kakatua are fine fish, splendidly coloured, 

 and while some species are bright blue or green, some are 

 blue and yellow, some blue and pink, and some are vivid 

 red in various combinations. Some that inhabit the lagoon 

 may be taken upon a line, but most must be speared or 

 shot, for although it is possible to fish at times upon the 

 barrier, the loss of fishing-tackle among the rocks makes the 



