204 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



the animal, probably the foot or mantle, acting as a rasp, 

 forms the true boring instrument. Thus, the skill of a 

 worm in excavating tunnels in wood puzzles scientists ; 

 and the cobra is certainly among the least conspicuous of 

 the denizens of a mangrove swamp, and perhaps far from 

 the most wonderful. 



The most remarkable if not the strangest denizens of 

 the spot are two species of the big-eyed walking and 

 climbing fish {Periophthalmus koelreuteri and P. australis) 

 which as vend the roots of the mangrove by the use of 

 ventral and pectoral fins, jump and skip on the mud and 

 over the surface of the water and into their burrows with 

 rabbit-like alertness. They delight, too, in watery recesses 

 under stones and hollows in sodden wood. Inquisitive and 

 most observant they might be likened to Lilliputian seals, 

 as they cling, a row of them, to a partially submerged root, 

 and peer at you, ready to whisk away at the least sign of 

 interference. They climb along the arching roots, the 

 better to reconnoitre your movements and to outwit 

 attempts at capture. Their eyes — in life, reflecting gems 

 — are so placed that they command a complete radius, 

 and if you think to sneak upon them they dive from their 

 vantage points and skip with hasty flips and flops to 

 another arching root, which they ascend, and resume their 

 observation. It must not be assumed that the climbing 

 fish — which seems to be more at home on the surface of the 

 water than below — climbs up among the branches. A foot 

 or so is about the limit of its upper wanderings. 



Then, too, in what is generally regarded as a noisome, 

 dismal, mangrove swamp, birds of cheerful and pleasing 

 character congregate. Several honey-eaters, the little 

 blue turtle dove, the barred-shouldered dove, the tranquil 

 dove, the nutmeg pigeon, the little bittern, the grey sand- 

 piper, the sordid kingfisher, the spotless egret, the blue 

 heron, the ibis — all and others — frequent such places, and 

 in their season, butterflies come and go. In most of its 

 aspects a mangrove swamp is not only the scene of one of 

 Nature's most vigorous cwid determined processes, but 



