CHAPTER I. Fishes

FISHES

PLATE I

THE GOBIES (1 and 2)

In this little book I want to talk to you about some of the strange and wonderful creatures which you may find when you go to stay by the sea-side. And first of all I should like to tell you something about the fishes. A great many of these, of course, live in the deep water, where you cannot catch them, or even see them. But there are a good many others which you can find very easily indeed. All that you have to do is to wait until the tide has gone out, and then to go down and look into the pools which are left among the rocks. There you are almost sure to see a number of shadowy forms darting to and fro through the water. Some of these, most likely, will be shrimps and prawns, which are always very common in the rock-pools; but the others will be tiny fishes. And even if you have not got a net you can often catch them quite easily. Just bale out the water with a small pail, or even with your hands, until the pool is nearly empty, and you will be able to seize them with your fingers.

Among the fishes which can be caught in this manner are several kinds of Gobies. You can easily tell them from all other fishes by the curious way in which their lower fins are made. These fins are placed close together, so as to form a kind of cup-shaped sucker or soft pad, by means of which the little creatures can cling so firmly to the rocks that even a wave will not wash them from their hold. And if you take them home alive and put them into a basin full of sea-water, they will cling to the sides and stare at you in a most inquisitive way! Owing to this habit the gobies are often called “rock-fishes.”

The commonest of these odd little creatures, perhaps, is the Black Goby. But the Spotted Goby is very nearly as plentiful. It is rather hard to see, because it is coloured just like the sand at the bottom of the pool, on which it is very fond of resting. But if you scoop out the water from a shallow pool you will often find, not only the goby, but its nest as well. For this little fish makes a most curious nest in which to place its eggs. First of all it hunts about till it has found half an empty cockle-shell, lying at the bottom of the water with its hollow side downwards. It then scoops out the sand from underneath it, so as to form a little chamber about as big as a marble. You would think that the walls of this chamber would very soon fall in, wouldn’t you? But the fish smears them all over with a kind of slime, which very soon sets and becomes quite hard, just like cement. It then makes a tunnel leading into the chamber by means of which it can go in and out; and last of all it covers the cockle-shell all over with loose sand. So unless you look very carefully at the bottom of the pool you will not see the nest at all. But if you notice a kind of lump in the sand, and find that half a cockle-shell is buried underneath it, you may be pretty well sure that you have discovered the home of a spotted goby.

This nest is always made by the male fish, and when it is quite finished his mate comes and lays her eggs in it. Then for eight or nine days he remains on guard outside the entrance, so as to prevent any hungry creature from finding its way in and devouring them. At the end of that time the eggs hatch, and a number of baby gobies make their appearance; and although they are so small that one can hardly see them, the father-fish seems to think that they are quite able to take care of themselves. So he swims away, and leaves them to their fate.

If you catch these little fishes with your fingers you must be careful how you handle them, for they have rather long and sharp teeth, and can give quite a smart bite.

PLATE II

THE SMOOTH BLENNY (1)

This fish, which is sometimes known as the Shanny, is also very common in the rock-pools. But you are not likely to see it unless you bale out all the water from a pool, for it always hides during the daytime in the crannies among the rocks, or underneath sea-weeds. Or it will even burrow down into the sandy mud beneath a big stone, so that you will not find it at all unless you dig for it.

When it is fully grown this fish is about five inches long, and it is quite a remarkable creature in several different ways.

In the first place, it varies a great deal in colour. Sometimes it is partly green and partly yellow, sometimes it is olive brown nearly all over, and sometimes it is almost black. But you can always tell it by the ring of bright crimson which surrounds each eye.

In the second place, it can remain for quite a long time out of the water. Some fishes die almost at once if they are taken out of the sea. But a blenny can live on dry land for twenty-four hours at least. The reason is that its gills are made in such a way that they remain damp for a long while after the fish leaves the water; and as long as the gills are moist it is able to breathe.

1. THE SMOOTH BLENNY.

2. THE SPOTTED GUNNELL.]

So very often indeed a smooth blenny will hide in a crevice which is left quite dry when the tide begins to fall, and will stay there till it rises again, perhaps eight or ten hours later.

But the oddest thing about this little fish is that it can move one of its eyes about without moving the other! Have you ever seen a chameleon? If so, you must have noticed how it will turn one of its curious eyes, first in one direction, and then in another, while the other eye remains quite still. And the blenny can move its eyes in just the same way, so that very often when one of them is looking out in front the other will be looking out behind. And then one will twist round and look upwards, while the other twists round and looks down!

If you succeed in catching a smooth blenny, you can always tell it from the other fishes which live in the rock-pools by the deep notch in the middle of the fin which runs along its back.

PLATE II

THE SPOTTED GUNNELL (2)

Another small fish which is very common in the rock-pools is the Spotted Gunnell. It is often known as the “butter-fish,” and if you try to catch it you will very quickly learn the reason why; for it will slip between your fingers just as if it had been smeared all over with butter. Nearly all fishes are slippery, but the spotted gunnell is the most slippery of all, for its whole body is covered with such a thick coat of greasy slime that it is really hardly possible to hold it.

Sometimes the spotted gunnell is light brown in colour, and sometimes it is dark brown. But you can always tell it by its shape, which is very much like that of an eel, for its body is long and flat, and is of almost the same width the whole way along, from the head to nearly the tip of the tail. Then instead of having two fins on its back quite separate from one another, as most fishes have, the spotted gunnell has one very narrow fin which runs the whole length of the body. So, you see, it is very much like an eel indeed. But you can always tell it by the row of black spots, bordered with white, on the lower edge of the back-fin. When fully grown it is about six inches long.

PLATE III

THE DRAGONET (1)

You will not find this little fish in the rock-pools nearly so often as the gobies and the gunnells, for it generally lives at the bottom of the sea at some little distance from the shore. But now and then it comes swimming up as the tide rises, and gets left behind as it falls again, so that for a few hours, at any rate, it is obliged to stay in the pools. It is a most beautiful little creature, and, strange to say, the male is much more handsome than the female, for he is golden yellow above and white beneath, with streaks and spots of lilac upon his back and sides, while his mate is reddish-yellow all over. Besides this, he has the front spine of his first back-fin drawn out to such a length that it reaches almost to the tip of his tail, while all his other fins are very long and very spiny. He really does look, indeed, very much like a tiny water-dragon. That is the reason, of course, why he is called the “dragonet.” The female, however, has much smaller fins. Indeed, she is so very unlike the male that until a few years ago even naturalists thought that she was a different fish altogether, and she was generally known as the Fox, on account of her reddish colour.

1. THE DRAGONET.

2. THE PIPE-FISH.]

If you ever succeed in finding a dragonet in the rock-pools it is almost sure to be a female, for the male hardly ever comes into shallow water.

PLATE III

THE PIPE-FISH (2)

This is a very odd-looking fish indeed--quite the most curious of all the fishes which live in the rock-pools. And as it is very common, you ought to be able to find it without any difficulty.

In the first place, although it grows to a length of eighteen or nineteen inches, its body, even in the largest part, is no bigger round than a slate-pencil. For this reason it is often known as the Needle Fish.

Besides this, its jaws are drawn out to a most wonderful length, and are fastened together all the way along, so that they really form a kind of tube. So, you see, a pipe-fish can never open or shut its mouth, but has to suck in its food through the tiny hole at the tip of the jaws.

Sometimes, as you look down into a rock-pool, you may see one of these fishes feeding; and the way in which it does so is very curious indeed. It suspends itself almost upright in the water, with its tail upwards and its head downwards. It then fills its tube-like mouth with water, which it squirts out again as hard as it possibly can. The result is, of course, that the sand at the bottom of the pool is blown away, and the various tiny creatures which were lying hidden underneath it are uncovered. Then the fish sucks them up into its mouth, and swallows them.

Another curious fact about the pipe-fish is that instead of being clothed with scales, as most fishes are, it is covered all over with hard bony plates, just like a suit of armour. But the strangest thing of all about it is that underneath the body of the male fish is a kind of pouch, into which the female puts her eggs, so that he can carry them about in safety until they hatch! Isn’t that odd? And it is even said that after the little fishes are hatched they will go back into their father’s pouch if they are frightened, just as baby kangaroos do into that of their mother, and remain there until the danger has passed away!

PLATE IV

THE FLOUNDER

This is one of the “flat fishes,” as everybody calls them, like the turbot and the sole. Yet, really and truly, these creatures are not flat at all. They are thin. For what we always call the back of a sole is not really its back. It is one of its sides. And what we always call its lower surface is not its lower surface, but its other side!

This sounds very strange, doesn’t it? But the fact is that when these so-called “flat” fishes are first hatched they swim upright, just as all other fishes do. Then their backs are upwards, of course, and their lower surfaces are downwards, and one of their sides is on either side. For about a month they swim about in this way. At the end of that time a strong desire comes over them to go and lie down on the sand or mud at the bottom of the sea. Now, in order to do this, of course, they have to lie upon their sides. Then three very strange things happen.

In the first place, their colour changes. Until now, both sides of the body have been pearly or silvery white. A white fish, however, lying on yellow sand or brown mud, would be very easily seen, and some hungry creature would be sure to catch sight of it and devour it. So as soon as the little fish lies down the upper side begins to get darker, and in a very short time it is of just the same colour as the sand or mud all round it. If you look into a shallow pool in which some of these fishes are lying you will find it very difficult indeed to see them, for they look exactly like the surface on which they rest.

In the second place, their way of swimming changes. When they first hatch out from the egg these little fishes swim just as other fishes do--upright, by means of their tails. For of course you know that fishes do not swim with their fins, which merely help them to keep their balance in the water. But when they lie down at the bottom of the sea they give up this way of swimming, and wriggle their way, as it were, through the water, still lying upon one side.

THE FLOUNDER.]

But the oddest change of all takes place in the position of the eyes. You can easily see, of course, that if a fish with its eyes in the usual place lies down on one side at the bottom of the sea, one eye is underneath its head, and is quite useless. So you might think that, except when it was swimming, it would only be able to see with one of its eyes. But a very strange thing indeed happens as soon as it lies down on the mud. The lower eye actually begins to move, and slowly travels round the head, till at last it settles down by the side of the other! That sounds impossible, doesn’t it? It is as wonderful as anything in a fairy story. Yet in every one of these so-called “flat” fishes that strange journey of the eye takes place.

Next time you pass by a fishmonger’s shop just look at the soles or the flounders in his window, and you will see that in every one of these fishes the two eyes are quite close together, above the same corner of the mouth. That is because one of the eyes moved right across the head while the fish was quite small, so that it might be able to use them both as it lay at the bottom of the sea.

You can sometimes catch flounders by paddling in the sea in places where the bottom is rather muddy. After a little while you are almost sure to feel one of these fishes wriggling underneath your feet, and all that you have to do is to stoop down and seize it.

PLATE V

THE PLAICE

In its habits the plaice is very much like the flounder, except that it does not like lying upon mud, and always chooses a spot where the bottom of the sea is sandy. And the skin of the upper side of its body, instead of growing dark brown, like the colour of mud, becomes speckled and spotted like the surface of sand. The fish is always very careful indeed to conceal itself, for even when the sea-bottom is sandy it does not lie upon the surface, but wriggles its way right down into the sand, only leaving just its eyes and a small part of its head above it.

You can always tell a plaice when you see it by the bright reddish-yellow spots upon the upper side of its body and its fins. And besides these, it always has a row of little bony knobs on the upper side of its head. You can catch it just as you can catch flounders, by paddling in the sea. But the plaice which are caught in this way are always quite small ones, for the bigger fish, which sometimes weigh as much as twelve or even fifteen pounds, live in the deeper water at some little distance from the shore.

PLATE VI

THE EGG OF THE SKATE (1)

Very often indeed, as you walk along the sea-shore, you will find a curious object which the fishermen generally call a “mermaid’s purse.” It is about three inches long and two inches wide, and is made of a black, horny substance, so tough and hard that it is very difficult indeed to tear it. And from each corner there projects a slender tube, about an inch in length. In fact it looks rather like a hand-barrow, with handles in front as well as at the back, instead of wheels.

THE PLAICE.]

This is an egg of that very curious fish which we call the Skate, and which looks something like one of the “flat” fishes with a long whip-like tail. So it is sometimes called a “skate-barrow.” When it is flung up on the beach by the waves the egg is nearly always empty. But if you happen to be staying by the sea-side in the early spring, and go down for a walk along the beach after a violent storm, you may perhaps find one of these eggs with a baby skate inside it. And if you examine the egg very carefully, you will find that while one end is firmly closed up, the other end has a slit running right across it, and that this slit is made in such a way that it allows the little fish to pass out quite easily when the proper time comes, but quite prevents any other creature from coming in.

PLATE VI

THE EGG OF THE DOG-FISH (2)

On some parts of the coast you may often find an empty egg which is very much like that of the skate, for it is made of just the same horny material, and is of just the same shape. But at the four corners, instead of having straight projections like the handles of a barrow, it has long, twisted tendrils, just like those of a vine.

This is the egg of the Dog-fish, which is really a kind of small shark. It is not big or strong enough to be dangerous to human beings; but it is a terrible enemy to such small fishes as pilchards and herrings. For a number of these creatures form themselves into a band and go hunting together, just like a pack of wild dogs. And they will follow the shoal about day after day, snapping up the poor helpless fishes in hundreds and thousands.

When a dog-fish lays its eggs, it seems to fasten them down by their tendrils to the weeds which are growing at the bottom of the sea; and these hold them so firmly that unless the weeds are torn up with them, they never break away. At each end of the egg is a small hole, allowing a current of water to pass over the little fish inside it. And at one end there is a slit, just like that in the egg of the skate, which can only be pushed open from the inside. So the little dog-fish can get out, while its enemies cannot get in.

1. THE EGG OF SKATE.

2. THE EGG OF DOG-FISH.]

Very often, after a violent storm, you may find a dead dog-fish lying upon the shore; and even if you have never seen one of these creatures before you can tell at once what it is, because its skin is so rough that it feels exactly like a piece of sand-paper. So this skin is often used for covering the handles of swords, in order to give a firm grip; and sometimes narrow strips of it are fastened to the sides of boxes of lucifer matches.