110 ACANTHOPTERYGII. CH^TODONTID^. 



experiments were instituted to ascertain the fact. 

 We know that it is the case with one species in- 

 habiting the same seas, but so different in its 

 structure as to form a genus by itself, the Archer 

 of Java {Toxotes jaculator, Cuv.). The mouth is 

 not at all tubular, nor is it produced into a snout, 

 the gape is rather wide, and the lower jaw is 

 longer than the upper, a mouth totally different 

 from that of Chelmon, yet it has exactly the same 

 habit. " It well merits," observe MM. Cuvier 

 and Valenciennes, " the name of Archer, by its 

 singular industry. It knows how to shoot drops 

 of water to a great height, three feet and up- 

 wards, and to reach, almost without failure, the 

 insects, or other minute animals, which creep on 

 the aquatic plants, or even on those that grow 

 upon the shore. The inhabitants of many coun- 

 tries of the Indies, especially the Chinese of Java, 

 rear it in their houses to amuse themselves with 

 its manoeuvres, and offer it ants or flies on threads 

 and sticks within its reach. We have received 

 from Batavia an individual, the stomach of which 

 was entirely filled with ants."* 



It is probable that this is by no means the 

 constant habit of procuring food even with this 

 species, but that they more commonly content 

 themselves with the minute animals which, like 

 themselves, inhabit the sea-water. The learned 

 naturalists just quoted, found, on dissecting a 

 second specimen of the Toxotes, that the stomach 

 was filled with small crustacea.-f We have 

 watched the proceedings of a brilliant little Cha?- 

 todon on the shores of Jamaica {Ch. striatus), — 

 a tiny creature, no larger than a five-shilling 

 * His^ des Poissons, vii. 310. t Ibid. p. 321. 



