48 MR. F. DAT ON THE 



rivers are many forms of fish, especially belonging to the family 

 of Grobies or Blennies, that wander over the mud or climb rocks 

 left uucovered by the water, or on to the damp stems of trees left 

 exposed by an ebbing tide; and here they crawl about searching 

 for insects : but let them be alarmed, and what an instant com- 

 motion ensues ; some dive down at once into the soft mud, others 

 fly over the water to a place of safety like a piece of slate sent 

 skimming by a school-boy. Many small fishes, as Blennies &c, 

 when the tide ebbs, are left in small pools, where they conceal 

 themselves under stones. The larger Blennies quit the water, 

 and using their pectoral fins as organs of prehension and 

 locomotion, creep into suitable holes, where, with their heads 

 towards the sea, they await the flow of the tide, which they know 

 will restore them again to their native element. Often does the 

 observer in the tropics see fish jumping out of the water in terror 

 from some unseen foe ; and should a net be skilfully placed, the 

 cause of this commotion may be taken. I have found the Gar- 

 fish {Belone) is occasionally the form which the smaller herrings 

 are flying from or else the Bonito. The Skipper {Belone vul- 

 garis) of the British seas is observed at times to show great 

 terror at being pursued by Porpoises, Tunies, and Bonitos. 

 Multitudes, observes Couch, then mount to the surface and 

 crowd on each other as they press forwards. When still more 

 closely pursued, they singly spring to the height of several feet, 

 leap over each other in singular confusion, and again sink beneath. 

 The Flying-fish (Exocoetus) is likewise a form which springs out 

 of the water to escape its rapacious pursuers. Friar Odoric, who 

 visited Ceylon about a.d. 1320, observe that there are " fishes in 

 those seas that come swimming towards the said country in such 

 abundance, that for a great distance into the sea nothing can be 

 seen but the backs of fishes, which, casting themselves on the 

 shore, do suffer men for the space of three daies to come and to 

 take as many of them away as they please; and then they return 

 again to the ocean."* 



Among the coral reefs of the Andaman Islands I found the 

 little Heliastes lepidurus abundant. As soon as any thing splashed 

 into the water, they appeared to retire for safety to the branch- 

 ing coral, a locality where no large fish could intrude ; so fright- 

 ened did they become, that on an Andamancse diving from the 



* Hakluyt, ii. p. 37. 



