920 MVlarvels of the Universe 
lowermost are Wrasses, a family represented by about four hundred species, all of which are 
brilliantly coloured. Julis is often caught on coral-reefs off Cape Flattery by carefully lifting out 
of the water, and breaking open, growing clumps of a branching species of coral known as 
Porites. Such specimens are citadels of refuge when the tide is down, and yield a rich harvest 
of small fish of all sorts, as well as other forms of animal life. But the Wrasses, which live amid 
coral-reefs, like Pterois, are mostly carnivorous, and feed upon other fish and free-swimming 
animals. The coral-forming animals are apparently not eaten. But their near relatives, the 
Parrot Wrasses, live largely on coral polyps; and this because they have developed a special 
masticatory apparatus enabling them to deal with such stony morsels. 
Balistes and Tetrodon exhibit a particular fondness for coral-reef, feeding largely on the polyps 
which rear these stony bulwarks against the fury of the ocean. __ Balistes, sometimes known as File- 
fish and Trigger-fish, feeds also on mollusca, and bores holes through the shells of some of the giant 
species by the aid of powerful teeth. Tetrodon is one of the Globe-fishes, which are almost 
[By W. Saville Kent. 
CORAL-FISHES. 
Many of these fishes are very small, and are often caught amongst the reefs by breaking open growing clumps, where they 
are to be found lying in the crevices waiting for the return of the tide. 
invariably represented in natural history books in the inflated condition which they assume when 
threatened by enemies. At such times the creature rushes to the surface, and filling the belly with 
air, turns turtle. The abdomen then projects like a bladder above the surface of the water, where, 
being blown by the wind, the frightened creature is wafted to a place of safety. In most species 
the body is armed with powerful erectile spines, but in some the spines are immovable. The flesh, 
by the way, of most of the File-fishes and Globe-fishes is highly poisonous, at any rate so far as 
human beings are concerned. 
_ One could easily write a volume or two on the fishes which haunt coral-reef. But we can find 
space here only for one or two of the more remarkable types. Among the most celebrated and 
most remarkable of these are the Butterfly-fishes, represented by many different species. Those 
of the genus Chcetodon, Heniochus and Holceanthus are the best known. Some, like the Big- 
scaled Heniochus, are remarkable for the possession of a long whip-like appendage to the front (of 
the back-fin, and, so far, of unknown function. 
Though tinted with all the colours of the rainbow, and some to spare, and living amid a never 
