THE CH:RTODON. 279 



Description Princip;il species Food. 



Sucking fish are often eaten, and much ad- 

 mired : in taste they are said very greatly to 

 resemble fried artichokes. 



THE CII31TODON, or SHOOTING 

 FISH. 



THE head and mouth of the chastoda are 

 small, and they have the power of pushing out 

 and retracting the lips so as to make a tubular 

 orifice. The teeth are mostly bristle- shaped, 

 flexile, movable, closely set, and very numerous. 

 The gill-membrane has from three to six rays. 

 The body is scaly, broad, and compressed ; and 

 the dorsal and anal fins are generally terminated 

 with prickles. 



The principal species of this fish is the beaked 

 chaetodon, which frequents the shores and mouths 

 of rivers in India, and about the Indian islands. 

 It is somewhat more than six inches in length, 

 and is of a whitish or very pale brown color, 

 with commonly four or five blackish bands run- 

 ning across the body, which is ovate and com- 

 pressed. The eyes i.re large, and .the irides of a 

 golden color; the snout is lengthened and cylin- 

 drical; the dorsal and anal fins are very large, 

 and on the former is a large eye- like spot. 



The beaked chaetodon, or shooting fish, feeds 

 principally on flics and other small insects that 

 hover about the waters it inhabits; and the mode 



