IN BORNEAN FORESTS 



[chap. 



to that of a human being under like conditions. The remote ancestor 

 of the ikan sumpit must have beheld objects which it desired to 

 possess, but which were beyond its means of capture, and, destitute 

 of both prehensile organ or missile, may have tried to spit (if I may 

 so express it) at the insect which, settled on a blade of grass over- 

 hanging the water, had tempted its avidity. The fish thus utilised 



Fig. 29. "IKAN SUMPIT," OR SUMPITAN FISH. 



the only means in its power towards an attempt to throw something 

 at the desired prey. The conclusion is that acts of volition have 

 induced the ancestor of the ikan sumpit to endeavour to perform 

 certain movements in its buccal apparatus towards the attaining 

 of an end for which originally its organism was not morphologically 

 adapted. The modifications, therefore, which finally caused so 



140 



