MACKERELS. 241 



the soft and sometimes the spinous part of the dorsal fin covered 

 with scales, and scarcely distinguishable from the mass of the 

 body. Their jaws are furnished with several rows of teeth, re- 

 sembling in their conformation and arrangement the hairs of a 

 brush. Their mouth is very small, and the dorsal and anal fins 

 covered with scales. These fishes are numerous in the seas of 

 hot climates, and are remarkable for the beauty and brilliancy of 



FIG. 250. THE SHOOTING-FISH. 



their colours. Among them may be mentioned a singular group, 

 called 



The Archers, or Shooting Fishes (To.votes}* of which a common species, 

 Toxotes jaculator, inhabits the Ganges and the seas of India. They are cele- 

 brated on account of the manner in which they are said to project drops of 

 water at insects that frequent aquatic plants, in order to bring them down to 

 feed on them. They can hit their game at the height of three or four feet, 

 and rarely miss their aim. 



The family of Labyrinthiform Pharyngeals is remarkable 

 from its members possessing an apparatus of very complicated 

 cells, situated above the gills. These cells, enclosed beneath the 

 operculum, and formed by convolutions of the bones of the throat, 

 serve to retain a certain quantity of water, which keeps the 

 branchiae wet when the animal is exposed to the air, and thus 

 enables it to live for a 'considerable time out of water. Some 

 species are in the habit of leaving the rivers and pools, their 

 usual abode, and going to considerable distances, crawling on 



* TO^OTTJJ, toxotes, an archer. 



