Thus, the skill of a worm in excavating tunnels in wood
puzzles scientists; and the cobra is certainly among the least
conspicuous of the denizens of a mangrove swamp, and perhaps far from
the most wonderful.
The most remarkable if not the strangest denizens of the spot are two
species of the big-eyed walking and climbing fish (PERIOPHTHALMUS
KOELREUTERI and P. AUSTRALIS) which ascend the roots of the mangrove by
the use of ventral and pectoral fins, jump and skip on the mud and over
the surface of the water and into their burrows with rabbit-like
alertness. They delight, too, in watery recesses under stones and
hollows in sodden wood. Inquisitive and most observant they might be
likened to Lilliputian seals, as they cling, a row of them, to a
partially submerged root, and peer at you, ready to whisk away at the
least sign of interference. They climb along the arching roots, the
better to reconnoitre your movements and to outwit attempts at capture.
Their eyes--in life, reflecting gems--are so placed that they command a
complete radius, and if you think to sneak upon them they dive from
their vantage points and skip with hasty flips and flops to another
arching root, which they ascend, and resume their observation.
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