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BLUEFIELDS. 
In endeavouring to capture some of these little 
fishes, a curious habit came to my knowledge. 
Having in my hand a gauze insect-net, I clapped 
it over a Gootoo beginning to hide itself in 
the sand. I felt sure that I had it, but my servant 
could not feel it with his hand, through the gauze, as 
I held the ring tightly down upon the bottom of the 
shallow water. Presently I saw, emerging from 
under the edge of the ring, an object, that, in size, 
form, and colour, looked exactly like a hen’s egg. 
The lad instantly seized it, telling me that it was the 
fish ; and as he held it up, I saw with surprise the abdo- 
men tightly inflated to the dimensions described, and 
the fish still inspiring more air with a sucking noise, 
and motion of the mouth. To the touch it was as 
tense as a blown bladder, and it was with difficulty 
that I could force it into a wide-mouthed pickle- 
bottle of sea-water, for it filled the neck like a cork. 
The instant, however, it touched the water in the 
bottle, it resumed its ordinary appearance, and the 
change of form was like the effect of magic. 
THE PIPER. 
A little further off from the beach may be seen 
that species of Belone*, called indiscriminately Piper 
* Perhaps B. truncata of Lesueur, or B, gerania of Cuvier and 
Valenciennes ; but the colours do not agree with those of any one of 
the twenty-five species described by the latter zoologists. I regret 
that the specimen preserved for comparison is lost, but the following 
note of the colouring was made from the recent fish. Irides golden 
(sometimes silvery) ; the iris depends in a short pointed curtain over 
the top of the pupil. Back dark green, mottled ; edges of the jaws. 
