96 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
sent to Amsterdam! Iam of course unaware upon what grounds 
Dr. Giinther's opinion has been formed, but cannot help thinking 
that he, not Hommel, is in error. 
A few years since, the late Dr. Bleeker, just prior to com- 
mencing the ninth volume of his magnificent ‘Atlas Ichthyologique,’ 
spoke to me respecting the assertion that Towotes shoots insects 
with a drop of water propelled from its mouth. ‘‘ An interesting 
exercise of ingenuity,” observed that celebrated ichthyologist, 
“for which the form of its mouth seems totally unadapted, 
a plan I have never seen it adopt when resident in the 
East; was unable to hear anything about in Batavia, where I 
made enquiries; nor could I meet with anyone there who had 
personally witnessed it or had any confidence in its occurrence.” 
In his paper on “ Toxotes,” published in Amsterdam in 1875, he 
observed, respecting this faculty attributed to fishes of the genus, 
“ Je crois aussi que la célébrité n’est pas méritée, et ne repose que 
sur une erreur.” 
Personally I paid special attention to this question when 
investigating the fishes of Burma, but no fisherman had ever 
heard of this ingenuity being attributed to Toxotes, and which 
I cannot help thinking, with the late Dr. Bleeker, must be an error. 
That such a faculty in a fish exists can hardly be disputed, but 
how a tubular-mouthed species which remains some moments 
immovable before shooting a drop of water at an insect—during 
which time its entire head is under water—has become trans- 
formed into a form possessing a deeply-cleft mouth, which raises 
its head out of its native element to take a flying shot at 
an insect, I leave for explanation to Dr. Giinther and Mr. 
Seeley. Until some evidence in support of their views is 
adduced, I prefer accepting the statements of Hommel and 
Mitchell, as well as the published figures and identification of the 
species by Schlosser and Pallas, to whom the example was trans- 
mitted from Batavia. Even if it can be proved that Towxotes ever 
shoots insects with water, this would not disprove the positive 
statements of Hommel and Pallas, the former having witnessed the 
occurrence he described, and the latter having correctly deter- 
mined the species to be what is now known as Chelmon rostratus, 
Cuv. & Val. 
