38 THE INDUSTRIES OF ANIMALS. 



animal finds in his own organism a secretion which 

 happens to be more or less useful to his conservation. 

 The method of the Toxotes is different. It is a 

 foreign body which he takes up, and it is an intended 

 victim at which he takes aim and which he strikes ; 

 his movements are admirably co-ordinated to obtain 

 a precise effect 



Another fish, the Chelinous of Java, also acts in 

 this manner. He generally lives in estuaries. It is 

 therefore a brackish water which he takes up and 

 projects by closing his gills and contracting his 

 mouth ; he can thus strike a fly at a distance of 

 several feet. Usually he aims sufficiently well to 

 strike it at the first blow, but sometimes he fails. 

 Then he begins again until he has succeeded, which 

 shows that his movements are not those of a machine. 

 He knows what he is doing, what effect ought to be 

 produced, and whether this desired result has hap- 

 pened, and he perseveres until the insect has fallen. 

 .These facts are unquestioned ; the Chinese preserve 

 these curious fish in jars, and amuse themselves by 

 making them carry on this little exercise. Many 

 observers have witnessed and described it. 



Parlicular circumstances put to profit. — In the 

 various kinds of hunting which we have been passing 

 in review, it is certain that the animals in question 

 generally exercise them nearly always in the same 

 manner. If an animal has carried out a ruse suc- 

 cessfully he does not abandon it, but reproduces it as 

 often as it is efficacious. When, however, conditions 

 happen to change, animals are prompt to profit by 

 them, and one sees how all these acts are derived 

 from reflection. This is the clearer the more the 

 favourable circumstance is accidental and unforeseen, 



