OPHIOID FISHES. 
103 
On the sandy mud of the half-dry lagoon, a little 
roundabout crab, taken c[uite by surprise, was seen 
quickly scuttling into holes, or with great pre- 
cipitancy hiding himself in the soft sand. In 
muddy parts, bivalve mollusks, buried in the mud, 
were throwing up from their syphons little watery 
jets. On the sand-hills the bustards were walking 
about like turkeys, feeding on the dry fruit of a 
plant unknown to me, or pausing suddenly in their 
confident strut, with head on one side and out- 
stretched neck. Their quick eye soon saAV the 
strangers, and with a short cry they all ran 
towards each other, and rose in a little flock of 
from ten to twenty, 
’Any particulars concerning ophioid fishes will, 
I am sure, be welcome ; and have I not a right to 
speak about snake-fishes ? Did I not capture, in 
the middle of the South Atlantic, a fish which, if 
it had measured fourteen feet instead of fourteen 
inches, would have created far more astonishment 
than the Regalecus Jonesii (Newsman) ? My fish, 
(Ncmichthys scolopacea, Eichardson), taken in the 
