QUEER FISH AND ITS WATER GUN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 507, 9 October 1912, Page 7

QUEER FISH AND ITS WATER GUN.

'Attention has been before now attracted to a queer species of fish, called the archer, which''captures its prey by the use of what might be called a water gun. It shoots bullets of water with dea,dly aim at insects on adjacent plants, and, having thus knocked them down, promptly gobbles them up. If the first shot is not effective it discharges bullet ■after bullet. It is able to shoot with accuracy from a distance of a foot or perhaps twenty inches—sometimes even twice that far. The insect, if not knocked off the leaf instantly,. is quickly drenched by a shower of such shots, and falls intc the water.

A well known Russian scientist, Dr. Zolotnitsky, has been making experiments with these little fishes, which are only five or six inches long, in an aquarium. He. observes that, instead of the expressionless stare which is characteristic of fishes generally, the archer's eyes sparkle with intelligence. Although chiefly day-feeders, the archers' ire active during a bright moonlight night. One hot summer evening Zolotnitsky left the aquarium in the open air, and near it a lamp with a great moon-lilcc globe, which attracted many insects —mosquitoes, moths, and others. Some of these came within reach of the archer's shots, and the fishes became greatly elated leeding to repletion.