180 ORDER ACANTHOPTERYG1I. 



Toxotes, Cuv. 



Have the body short and compressed ; the dorsal on the 

 latter half of the back, furnished with strong spines, 

 the soft part scaly, as also the anal, which corresponds 

 with it; the snout depressed and short; the lower 

 jaw more prominent than the other ; the teeth very 

 even at the two jaws, at the end of the vomer, at the 

 palatines, at the pterygoideans, and on the tongue ; 

 six rays at the gills, the suborbital and the preoper- 

 culum delicately denticulated at the lower edge. Their 

 stomach is short and wide ; there are twelve ccecal 

 appendages to the pylorus ; the air-bladder is large 

 and thin. 



The known species {Toxotes jaculator, Cuv.), La- 

 bras jaculator, Shaw, iv. part ii. p. 485. pi. lxviii. ! 

 From Java ; is celebrated for the instinct it possesses 

 in common with the Chcet. rostratus, of darting drops 

 of water on insects which are on aquatic plants, 

 thereby causing them to fall into the water, and be- 

 come its prey. They shoot them sometimes three 

 or four feet high, and seldom miss their aim. 



The seventh family of the Acanthopterygii, or 

 the 



Kurtus argenteus, Bl. Schn. 164. P. mangida, Cuv., Russell 114. 

 P. molucca, Cuv., Renard i. 15. 85. and Valent. No. 46. 



1 It is also the Scarus Schlosseri, Gmel., Lacep., and Shaw ; the 

 Sciana jaculatrix of Bonnaterre ; the Lahre sagittaire of Lacep. ; 

 #nd the Coins chatareus of Buchanan. 



