FISHES 1351 



versally obtains in the case of both lower and higher 

 animals. 



Of the oddities which fish-life presents, probably 

 none are more remarkable than the archer or 

 shooter fishes (Toxotes), which inhabit the seas of 

 Japan and of the Eastern Archipelago. When kept 

 in confinement, these fishes may be seen to shoot drops 

 of water from their elongated jaws at flies and other 

 insects which attract their attention. They have been 

 observed to strike their prey with unerring aim at 

 distances of three or four feet. Another notable 

 species of shooting-fishes is the Chaetodon. This 

 latter form possesses -a prominent beak or muzzle, 

 consisting of the elongated jaws; and from this beak, 

 as from the barrel of a rifle, the fish shoots its watery 

 missiles at the insects which alight on the vegetation 

 fringing its native waters. 



The old saying which compares great helpless- 

 ness to the state of a "fish out of water" does not 

 always find a corroborative re-echo in natural his- 

 tory science. As every one knows, different fishes ex- 

 hibit very varying degrees of tenacity to life when 

 removed from their native element. Thus a herring 

 dies almost immediately on being taken out of water; 

 while, on the other hand, the slippery eels will bear 

 removal from their habitat for twenty-four hours 

 or longer; and we have known of blennies such as 

 the shanny (Blennius pholis) surviving a long 

 journey by post of some forty-eight hours' duration, 

 when packed amid some damp sea-weed in a box. 



But certain fishes are known not merely to live 

 when taken out of water, but actually of themselves, 



