Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/811

 of its skill as a sportsman. An air-gun with a drop of water for a bullet! It is said the Japanese amuse themselves by watching their captive chætodons shoot the flies presented to them.



Most reptiles use teeth for prehending food, like the fishes. Some, however, as the toad and chameleon, employ the tongue, which, being rooted in front and free behind, besides being very extensile, is thrown out and over with great quickness and precision. A sticky saliva causes the insect to adhere.

Poison-fangs of serpents are helps to procure food as well as weapons; and the power of charming is a very strange and effective way of obtaining food.

The alligator will approach a large animal which may be standing at the water's edge, and, by a quick blow of its powerful tail, knock the unsuspecting creature into the water. In deep water it is at the mercy of the reptile, which kills it by drowning. The nostrils of the alligator and crocodile are so placed as to be out of water, while the prey held in the jaws is beneath the surface.

Birds have not great variety of organs or methods of prehension. Beaks, claws, tongues, and keen senses complete the list of means. The woodpecker drills a hole into the tree to secure the larva which by some mysterious power it knows is buried there; and its barbed tongue is used to draw the worm from its hole. The slender, forked tongue of hummingbirds is used to grasp and draw minute insects from the depths of flowers. The long beaks of some birds are used to penetrate the sand or mud in search of worms. Birds of prey grasp