ANIMAL CANNONEERS AND SHARP-SHOOTERS. 259 



shore, using its ventral fins as legs, it looks like some strange 

 goblin from the depths of the ocean, that has come ashore on 

 mischief bent. No wonder Onchidium greets it with a shower of 

 shot. 



There are several families of very proficient sharp-shooters 

 among the lower animals. The most expert, however, of them all 

 is to be found in a family of fishes, genera of which are found in 

 several localities both of the Old and the New World. These 

 fishes are wonderful marksmen, and seldom fail to bring down the 

 object at which they aim. Their weapons are their long, pecu- 

 liarly-shaped muzzles, and their bullets are drops of water. The 

 fish, after sighting its quarry, slowly swims to a favourable position 

 within range ; it then rises to the surface, protrudes its muzzle, and, 

 taking rapid aim, zip ! fires its water bullets and knocks its prey 

 into the river. The struggling insect is gobbled down instanter, 

 and the fish then proceeds in search of other game. 



On one occasion, while I was watching some catfish that were 

 swimming close to the shores of a pond^ one of them gave a 

 sudden flirt with its tail, thereby throwing a shower of water on a 

 wasp which was busily engaged in digging out a pellet of clay. 

 This unexpected downfall washed the wasp into the pond, where- 

 upon it was immediately snapped up by the wily catfish. Whether 

 or not this tragedy was the result of deliberate premeditation on 

 the part of the fish I am not prepared to state ; yet, taking every- 

 thing into consideration, I firmly believe that it was. 



The llama of South America is an expert marksman, though it 

 never uses its craft in the procurement of its food. Only when 

 annoyed and angry does it give an exhibition of its wonderful 

 skill in hitting the object aimed at. The llama's weapon is its 

 mouth ; its bullet is composed of saliva and chewed hay. 



Several years ago, at the Fair Grounds in St. Louis, I witnessed 

 an exhibition of this creature's powers of expectoration, in which 

 the victim was a country beau, who came very near losing his 

 sweetheart thereby. This young man was one of those self-sufii- 

 cient individuals who imagine that knowledge sits enthroned in the 

 temples of their own personal intellects ; that " what they do not 

 know is not worth knowing." He was annoying the llama (the 

 animal stood in the centre of its pen, probably fifteen feet or more 



