THE ARCHER-FISHES. 



35 



Homrael himself made the following experiment : He had a few of 

 these fishes placed in a large vessel containing sea-water. When 

 they had become accustomed to this prison, lie ran a pin through a 

 fly, and made it fast to one side of the vessel. He then was so for- 

 tunate as to see " these fishes vying with one another in their efforts 

 to seize the fly, and continually squirting little drops of water, with- 

 out ever missing their aim." 



We owe it to truth to add that Bleeker, who resided so long in 

 the Dutch Indies, and who is perfectly familiar with the ichthyo- 

 logical fauna of that region, not only finds in the habits of the ban- 

 douliere no confirmation of this singular method of catching insects, 

 but he never even heard it mentioned during his sojourn at Ba- 

 tavia. " Certain it is," adds he, " that at Batavia this species in- 

 habits only the waters of the reefs of the little islands in the bay, and 

 never visits the swampy and sandy beach in the vicinity of the capi- 

 tal, or the mouths of the rivers." 



A fish belonging to the same family Squamipinnes but classed 

 in another group, has likewise received from Schlosser and Pallas 

 the name of Archer. 



Four species, inhabiting the waters of Polynesia and the Indian 

 Archipelago, constitute this group of the Archers, or Toxotce. Instead 

 of being more or less oval in shape, as is the case with the Chmtodons, 

 the body is here elongated, the line of the back being nearly straight, 

 while that of the belly is curved, so that the fish assumes a t-riangu- 



Fig. 2. 



lar shape. The distinguishing feature of these fishes is the backward 

 position of the dorsal fin, which, relegated to the posterior part of the 

 body, is armed with only three or four spines (Fig. 2). The head, 

 lying in the same plane with the line of the back, is pointed ; the eye 



VOL. XII. 20 



