Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/125

Rh piece, marked with alternate bands of black and rich yellow,–as it played about the stones and crevices of the rocks in shallow water, apparently picking its minute prey from their sides. It has the curious and apparently unaccountable habit of butting with the head against the stones, many times in quick succession, with such force as to

rebound for several inches. This same propensity has been noticed in another part of the world; M. Freycinet, in his Voyage round the World, records, that when wading over the coral reef encircling the island of Guam, in the Indian Archipelago, in search of mollusca, he was assailed by a small Chætodon, not bigger than his hand; it butted at his hand, and pertinaciously refused to be driven away. In the former case it might, perhaps, be presumed that the fish was collecting some object or other, animal or vegetable,