CUKIOUS FISH. 



67 



produced by the extraordinary variety and brilliance 

 of their multicoloured bands and markings was simply 

 and literally kaleidoscopic. 



This marvellous colouring of coral-haunting fish is a 

 topic which has been "done to death:" and for those 

 who have seen it with their own eyes, there is hardly a 

 more tempting subject on which to grow enthusiastic. 

 But these fish are just as curious for their extraordinary 

 variety of form and shape and many modifications. 

 There was one, for instance, the rays of whose dorsal fin had 

 been modified into strong spinous processes which let down 

 and could be completely hidden in a trough-like groove 

 on its back. The first of these rays was more or less 

 isolated from the rest, and was as strong, rigid and pointed 

 as a steel dagger. When erected, no force that we could 

 apply with our fingers was strong enough to push it back 

 into this groove. It resisted every effort ; and until you 

 had discovered the secret, it furnished an amusing puzzle, 

 which was never solved until a slight touch on the spine, 

 immediately behind it, released the lock which held the 

 first spine so immovably in its place. This fish (Balistes) 

 has in consequence been called the trigger-fish. 



Other fish have teeth which remind you of a sheep's. 

 These are brightly coloured fish which are in the habit of 

 " browsing " on submerged coral rocks, scraping their 

 smooth water-worn surfaces for the sake of feeding on 

 the nulHpores or minute algae which thickly encrust 

 them. Others have trailing flexuous fins which recall 

 the gauzy draperies of those aUuring ladies who display 

 their sinuous forms in the multicoloured limelight of the 

 stage. Some are like zebras of the sea, with alternate 

 bands of bright yellow and black. Others are all black 

 with a single sinuous band of bright cobalt-blue. 



The same sort of thing, but on a larger scale, greets your 

 downward gaze on the " banks " which are found extend- 

 ing outwards from the southern and western limits of 

 these islands. In the intervals of fishing over them, it 

 was good to take a "fish-glass," immerse it beneath the 



