Part 44 (1/2)

”Yes, it's the largest of the flatfish There's a record of one halibut having been caught weighing a trifle over five hundred pounds Usually a fish one-fifth of that size is considered large”

”Flatfish are funny creatures,” said Colin ”I've often wondered how the eyes in various species wander around in their heads”

”Other people have wondered, too,” said his co about it, don't we?” protested the lad

”Aren't the eyes all right in the young fish?”

”Certainly,” was the reply, ”and, what's ht”

”How does the eye o blind and another one grow on?”

”No,” answered his friend; ”your first idea was the right one, the eye h the body The young flatfish is thin and alins to be tie from one side of the body to the other it sinks in A thin, transparent skin grows over the socket and the eye sinks in and in, the bonesaway from before it, until it has come near the proper place on the other side Then a new socket opens for the eye, and it finally arrives at the end of its journey through the head, thus co on the same side as the other eye At the sa on its side, and its color sche white, while the upper side is dark and spotted to look like the stones on the botto,” was the reply, ”from a clam to a codfish But the favorite food of the halibut, for instance, is sting-ray, and consequently it is a good friend of the oyster-rays, and these last are destructive to a good oyster-bed”

”It seems to me,” said Colin, ”that the whole story of the seas is that fish eat fish, while the few that escape froulls and terns and other birds”

”Yet,” said the other, s, ”the birds don't have it all their oay Soobble them!”

”Can they eat birds?”

”It's a little rare,” was the reply, ”but there's one authentic case on record in which a fish's stomach was found to contain no less than seven wild ducks”

”Why, I always thought that fish had a small mouth in proportion to their size Itone!”

”It was not ,” was the reply; ”but it is one of the few fishes having a huge oosefish, because it attacks wild geese, but the right na the botto, and when one dives for worler catches it by the neck and drags it down and then ss it at leisure You see the bird hasn't a chance, because all the angler-fish has to do is to hold it until it strangles”

This led to a discussion of the food of fishes, and under the spur of the boy's questions, the scientist outlined for hiether with all the various ways in which water is aerated, such as the growth of water-plants and the currents of streams

”It still seehting soh, ”that there aren't so them”

”There are,” his friend replied; ”that is to say, in the sense you -fish, that is regularly trained by the fishermen, and the combats are so faathers”

”Where?” asked Colin incredulously ”That sounds a little as if you thought I was one of the marines, Dr Jimson”

”It is absolutely the case,” was the reply ”And, what is ate receipts, just like a baseball game here The sue that the Crown refuses to allow the fights to be held unless a certain percentage is paid over to the king”

”Where can that be?”

”In Sia-fish is distantly related to the perch, but it has been used for public cohly specialized It is really a sort of ga fish, and the s in a cohting-fish never needs to work for a living, he can easily be supported by the winnings of his possession Often a fish or a teae and the rivalry between coamblers, also, and in more than one instance the Siae which was threatened with fah betting upon the success of their tea-fish”

”You say it's a kind of perch?”

”Only distantly,” was the reply; ”it belongs to a very curious group of fishes which cannot live long in the water unless they can breathe air once in a while, nor can they live very long in air, unless they breathe water occasionally The fish that climbs tall trees is a member of the same sub-order”

”You mean the skippy?”