108 ACANTHOPTERYGII. — CHiETODONTIDiE. | 
genus Chcetodon has many species in which Na- i 
ture appears almost to have disported herself by ! 
clothing them in the most gaudy manner. Rose, i 
purple, azure, and velvety black, are distributed ! 
along the surface of their bodies, in stripes, rings, 
and ocellated spots on a silver ground ; nor are 
the beauties of these fishes lost to man, or con- 
fined to the depths of ocean. They are small, 
and usually remain near the shore, between the i 
rocks, where there is but little water. Here ; 
they are incessantly sporting in the sun-beams, 
as if for the purpose of displaying the ornaments 
they have received from Nature.” ^ 
In almost all the members of this numerous 
Family, the muzzle projects into a prominent 
snout ; and in some of the genera, as Zanclus^ 
and more especially Chelmon, it is produced into 
a long narrow tube. In the latter genus, a very 
curious instinct and endowment attend this pecu- 
liarity of structure. In the year 1763, Dr, 
Schlosser presented to the Royal Society a spe- 
cimen of the East Indian species, now known as 
Chelmon rostratus^ with some information on its 
singular habits, which had been given him by Mr. 
Hommel, governor of the hospital at Batavia, in 
Java. The fish frequents the shores and sides 
of the sea and rivers in search of food ; when it 
spies a fiy sitting on the plants that grow in 
shallow water, it swims on to [within] the distance 
of four, five, or six feet ; and then, with a sur- j 
prising dexterity, it ejects out of its tubular 
mouth, a single drop of water, which never fails ! 
striking the fiy into the sea, when it soon becomes 
its prey. 
* Griffith’s Animal Kingdom, x. 322. 
