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.