A SELF-BURYING FISH.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."1 Six,—A fish of curious habits exists in New Zealand, and' as it has apparently hitherto escaped the notice of naturalists, you will, perhaps, admit a brief account of it. The fish is called by the Maories the kakawai. Its habitat is very exten- sive in the North Island, and it may be found on the Wairarapa Plains, the Forty-mile Bush, &c. It is generally discovered when a man is digging out rabbits or making post. holes in the summer time, and it lies at a depth of a foot or two feet under the soil. The character of the soil, whether sandy or loamy, does not seem to matter. The fish is from two to three inches long, silvery, shaped like a minnow, but rather more slender and tapering. It appears to be dead when exhumed, and if dug up in the summer and put into water it dies at once. If, however, it is brought to daylight in May or early June (the end of autumn), when the rains are beginning to make the soil thoroughly wet, and put into a tub of water, a curious thing happens. After a day or two it casts its skin, which sinks to the bottom, and the fish plays about bright and lively. When dug up in summer there appears to be a growth of skin, or perhaps of a dry gummy exudation, which seals up the head and gills. Apparently this enables it to ;estivate through the dry weather, and seals the fish as an Indian fakir is sealed up before he goes in for a long fasting burial. Of course in winter there must be marshy spots or pools in which the fish can swim and propagate, but often all evidence of such nate.- tion disappears in summer, and the hot, dry, waterless plain seems the last place on earth in which to find a fish. When the skin is cast off vivid little spots of red appear on the body, so that some people have said that the fish is a small trout. This is not the case (although they are now used as bait for trout); the kakawai was well known to the natives ages before trout were introduced from England; well known, although the name by some chance has been missed in making the Maori dictionaries, "just as naturalists have missed noticing the fish.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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