The Parrot-fishes 341 
fishermen believed that this armament enabled 
the parrot-fishes to bite off the tips of branch 
coral, which constituted their principal food. 
When I expressed a doubt of this, Long John 
took me to a “grove” of branch coral and 
showed me the tips of countless branches where 
the polyps had been destroyed by the parrot- 
fishes; but I found that the real “coral eater” 
was a huge marine worm, which literally drew 
itself over the tips of branch coral as one would 
pull the finger of a glove, swallowing it to a dis- 
tance of four or more inches, thus securing the 
polyps. That the parrot-fish cou/d bite off a 
coral branch there is little doubt, or that it does 
at times I would not venture to deny; but its 
principal food consists of crustaceans, seaweed, 
echini, and the ordinary game of the tropical 
shallows, — this from an examination of its inter- 
nal economy. 
But a few ardent anglers will have the temerity 
to spend a summer on the outer reef where my 
old boatmen, Long John, Bob Rand, Chief, and 
Busby, lie buried by the great current which 
sweeps silently on through these isles of eternal 
summer. 
