Why doesn't reflection reveal the clone() method in arrays?

Question

I was surprised to discover that the following code does not reveal the method "clone()", even though you can call "clone()" on an Object[]. Can anyone explain why this is? I was hoping to use the Reflect API to clone an arbitrary object if it was Cloneable, and to throw an Exception otherwise. How can I do this?
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
public class Test {
     public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
          Object x;
          //pick a class
          x = new Object[] {};
          //is it Cloneable?
          System.out.print("The class " + x.getClass().getCanonicalName() + " is ");
          if(!(x instanceof Cloneable)) System.out.print("NOT ");
          System.out.println("Cloneable");
          System.out.println("-------");
          //what methods are available?
          Method[] meths = x.getClass().getMethods();
          for(Method m : meths) {
               System.out.println(m.getName());
          System.out.println("-------");
}

Answer 1

Just to clarify. I know that clone() is protected in Object, but it is certainly a public method in array objects such as int[], float[], Object[] etc. Test: call clone() on any of these objects! Also, I realize that Cloneable does not itself guarantee the method clone(). Nevertheless, if you take a regular Cloneable object, such as a String, then typically, if you ran myObject.getClass().getMethods() on that object, you'd find the method clone() in the resulting list. i.e., that Class has overwritten Object's protected clone() method with a public clone() method. So since int[], float[] and all the rest have a clearly public clone() method, then why doesn't myFloatArray.getClass().getMethods() show me a method called "clone"? I guess it would have to have something to do with the fact that arrays are funny kinds of classes that are not properly handled by the Reflection API, but is it on purpose that clone() isn't available?