328 SUPPLEMENT ON 



has found in its flesh the monostoma filicoUe of that learned 

 helminthologist. 



Pempheris is a genus which has been discovered in the 

 Pacific Ocean. Among modern observers the first who men- 

 tioned one species of this genus was White, who has given a 

 figure of it in his Voyage to New South Wales, and names it 

 sparus compressus. 



The fish on which the genus Toxotes has been esta- 

 blished, merits this name (Archer) from the peculiar instinc- 

 tive ingenuity which it exhibits. Although its mouth differs 

 considerably from that of the chelmon in its organization, it 

 knows how in the same manner to shoot drops of water to a 

 great height, three feet and upwards, and to reach, almost 

 without failing, the insects or other little animals which creep 

 on the aquatic plants, or even upon those that grow upon the 

 shore. The inhabitants of many countries of the Indies, espe- 

 cially the Chinese of Java, rear it in their houses to amuse 

 themselves with its manoeuvres, and present it ants or flies on 

 threads and sticks within its reach. M. Cuvier received an 

 individual from Batavia, whose stomach was altogether filled 

 with ants. The species is known in the Indian Archipelago, 

 under the Malay name of ikan-sumpit. 



The Scomberoides constitute a family, as observed in 

 the text, extremely useful to man. 



When considered isolatedly these fish would be easily 

 characterized. The simple separation of the posterior rays of 

 their second dorsal, and of their anal, would suffice for that 

 purpose in the tunny and the mackerel, the typical genera 

 of this family ; but these are only the chiefs of a numerous 

 series of genera and subgenera, in which the generic charac- 

 ter peculiar to them alters by degrees, and passes insensibly 

 to others. Scales usually so small, that they make the greater 

 part of the skin appear as though it were smooth ; vertical fins, 

 not scaly ; opercular pieces, without spines or denticulations; 



