CURIOUS NOISE TO BE HEARD ON SHORE 495 
rock or burrows in the sand, or sea-urchins, or even the crabs 
that run about when the tide is low, might make the noise, 
but none of these could have caused it. 
One day in Mombasa, on the exposed reef below the golf 
links, I was bending down looking for objects of interest, and 
resting upon a stick. Suddenly from beneath the point of 
the stick a particularly loud 4 smack ’ was heard, and a slight 
shock was transmitted up the stick as if it had been knocked. 
Immediate investigation showed that the stick was covering 
the top of a narrow but deep hole in the coral, in which could 
be seen an arm of one of the 4 feather stars ’ — a particularly 
active starfish with long slender 4 arms ’ and very small central 
body — which abound on the East Coast. The noise was re- 
peated, and it seemed quite certain that it came from the 
hole inhabited by this 4 feather star,’ yet one is at a loss to 
understand how such a creature could produce this curious 
smacking noise. 
This note is written to direct attention to a puzzling 
phenomenon in the hope of further observations being recorded. 
DEATH OF THE LUNG FISH 
By A. Blayney Percival 
I regret to have to report the death of the last of the lung 
fish. A history of this specimen may be of interest. 
Early in 1915, the late Captain Woodhouse, then in charge 
of the Intelligence Department of Samburu District, was 
putting the station in a state of defence, trenches were being 
dug in this dry, desolate country, and it was then that a 
number of these fish were found. 
Some were sent to England, and three were put in the 
Museum at Nairobi. Upon arrival they were placed in a 
kerosene oil tin and allowed to dry off. Two years later they 
were soaked out and two of the three came out quite fit. They 
were kept in a bottle for some time until the larger of the two 
attacked and killed his fellow. At our Annual Meeting of 
