THE SCALY-FINNED FISHES 2711 



length of the spines of the dorsal fin. These fishes are common in the tropical re- 

 gions of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans, where they are represented by some 

 seventy species. Nearly all are ornamented with bands or spots; a dark or two- 

 colored band passing through the eye and then inclining backward, being very 

 characteristic. Of the species represented, C. setifer, ranging from the Red Sea to 

 Polynesia, is readily recognized by the elongation of the fifth ray of the dorsal fin, 

 behind the base of which is a large dark spot with a light rim; C. trifasdatus, which 

 also has a similar range, but reaches the coasts of India, is marked by numerous 

 fine longitudinal stripes on the body and several dark bands across the head. On 

 the other hand in C. fasciatus of the Indian and Malayan seas, the body stripes 

 are oblique, and there is a single dark band across the head. 



Especial interest attaches to this genus, which contains but few spe- 

 cies, and differs from the last by the elongation of the muzzle into a 

 tube-like form, on account of the habits of one of its two Indian species (Chelmon 

 rostratus). Of this fish, which has four dark bands on the head and body, and an 

 eye spot on the soft dorsal fin, J. A. Schlosser wrote many years ago that it fre- 

 quented the shores and sides of the sea and rivers in search of food, and that when 

 it detected an insect perched on a plant it swam to within a distance of from four to 

 six feet, and then with surprising dexterity ejected out of its tubular mouth a single 

 drop of water, which never failed to strike the object aimed at into the water, where 

 it was immediately seized by the fish. Some of these fish kept in tubs of water 

 were seen to exercise their shooting powers even under these somewhat unfavorable 

 circumstances. Somewhat later a Mr. Mitchell observed the same action in some of 

 these fish kept in a pond near Batavia about the year 1828. Curiously enough, in 

 spite of these circumstantial statements, this capacity for ejecting water was trans- 

 ferred to a short-snouted member of the present family, which received its name of 

 Toxotes from this presumed power. Bleeker states, however, that when in Batavia 

 he never witnessed this act, which is one the mouths of these fishes would appear 

 quite incapable of performing. 



The fish {Heniochus macrolepidotus) numbered 4 in the illustration 



. TJT.-^ 1 i-rr-r 



on p. 2709, is a common Indo-Pacific member of a genus differing from 

 Chcetodon by the more or less marked elongation of the fourth spine of the dorsal 

 fin, which in the figured species assumes the form of a whiplash. Broad dark 

 bands across the body are very characteristic of the genus, and in the young the 

 head is armed with numerous horn-like processes, where are permanently retained 

 in a species named H. varius. 



The two large fishes shown in the illustration, swimming toward the 



left, belong to a genus distinguished from all the foregoing by the 

 presence of a large spine on the hinder edge of the preopercular bone; the dorsal fin 

 having from twelve to fifteen spines. The genus includes some forty species, with 

 the same range as the typical representative of the family. The splendidly-colored 

 emperor fish (H. imperator}, shown on the right side of the illustration, ranges 

 from the east coast of Africa to the Indian and Malayan seas, and has the ground 

 color of the body a deep blue, upon which are some thirty longitudinal golden- 

 yellow stripes. The eye stripe and a patch above the pectoral fin are black edged 



