\*>* •..":» Xif'^ M&!** &&£§£ i I JL ii un m ru ! Lfl m a GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF FISHES VARIATIONS IN THE COLOR OF FISHES The Oniokose or Demon Stinger, Inimicus japonicus (Cuv and Val.), from Wakanoura, Japan. From nature by Kako Morita. Surface coloration about lava rocks. Coloration of specimens living among red algae. Coloration in deep water ; Itnmifiis atiratitiiuus (Sclilegel). A GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF FISHES BY DAVID STARR JORDAN Prtsidtnt of Ltland Stanford Junior University With Colored Frontispieces and 507 Illustrations IN TWO VOLUMES VOL II. "I am the wiser in respect to all knowl- edge and the better qualified for all fortunes for knowing that there is a minnow in that brook. " — Thoreau NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1905 Copyright, 1905 BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Published March, 1905 CONTENTS VOL. II. CHAPTER I. THE GANOIDS. PAGE Subclass Actinopteri. — The Series Ganoidei. — Are the Ganoids a Natural Group? — Systematic Position of Lepidosteus. — Gill on the Ganoids as a Natural Group i CHAPTER II. THE GANOIDS (Continued'). Classification of Ganoids. — Order Lysopteri. — The Palaeoniscidae. — The Platy- somidae. — The Dorypteridae. — The Dictyopygidae. — Order Chondrostei. — Order Selachostomi : the Paddle-fishes. — Order Pycnodonti. — Order Lepi- dostei. — Family Lepisosteidae. — Embryology of the Garpike. — Fossil Gar- pikes. — Order Halecomorphi. — Pachycormidae. — The Bowfins: Amiidae. — The Oligopleuridae 13 CHAPTER III. ISOSPONDYLI. The Subclass Teleostei, or Bony Fishes. — Order Isospondyli. — The Classifica- tion of the Bony Fishes. — Relationships of Isospondyli. — The Clupeoidea. — The Leptolepidae.— The Elopidae.— The Albulidae.— The Chanidae.— The Hiodontidae. — The Pterothrissidae. — The Ctenothrissidae. — The Notopteri- dae. — The Clupeidae. — The Dorosomatidae. — The Engraulididae. — Gono- rhynchidae. — The Osteoglossidae. — The Pantodontidae 37 CHAPTER IV. SALMONID/E. The Salmon Family. — Coregonus, the Whitefish. — Argyrosomus, the Lake Her- ring.— Brachymystax and Stenodus, the Inconnus. — Oncorhynchus, the Quinnat Salmon. — The Parent-stream Theory. — The Jadgeska Hatchery. — Salmon-packing 61 vi Contents CHAPTER V. SALMONID^E (Continued). PAGE Salmo, the Trout and Atlantic Salmon. — The Atlantic Salmon. — The Ouan- aniche.— The Black -spotted Trout.— The Trout of Western America.— Cut- throat or Red-throated Trout. — Hucho, the Huchen. — Salvelinus, the Charr. — Cristivomer, the Great Lake Trout. — The Ayu, or Sweetfish. — Cormo- rant-fishing.— Fossil Salmonidae 89 CHAPTER VI. THE GRAYLING AND THE SMELT. The Grayling, or Thymallidae. — The Argentinidae. — The Microstomidae. — The Salangidae, or Icefishes. — The Haplochitonidae. — Stomiatidae. — Suborder Iniomi, the Lantern -fishes. — Aulopidae. — The Lizard-fishes. — Ipnopidae. — Rondeletiidae. — Myctophidae. — Chirothricidae. — Maurolicidae. — The Lancet -fishes. — The Sternoptychidae. — Order Lyopomi 120 CHAPTER VII. THE APODES, OR EEL-LIKE FISHES. The Eels. — Order Symbranchia. — Order Apodes, or True Eels. — Suborder Archencheli. — Suborder Enchelycephali. — Family Anguillidae. — Reproduc- tion of the Eel. — Food of the Eel. — Larva of the Eel. — Species of Eels. — Pug-nosed Eels. — Conger-eels. — The Snake-eels. — Suborder Colocephali, or Morays. — Family Moringuidae. — Order Carencheli, the Long-necked Eels. — Order Lyomeri or Gulpers. — Order Heteromi 139 CHAPTER VIII. SERIES OSTARIOPHYSI. Ostariophysi. — The Heterognathi. — The Eventognathi. — The Cyprinidae. — Species of Dace and Shiner. — Chubs of the Pacific Slope. — The Carp and Goldfish. — The Catostomidae. — Fossil Cyprinidae. — The Loaches 159 CHAPTER IX. THE NEMATOGNATHI, OR CATFISHES. The Nematognathi. — Families of Nematognathi. — The Siluridae. — The Sea Catfish.— The Channel Cats.— Horned Pout.— The Mad-toms.— The Old World Catfishes.— The Sisoridae.— The Plotosidae.— The Chlariidae.— The Hypophthalmidae or Pygidiidae. — The Loricariidae. — The Callichthyidae. — Fossil Catfishes. — Order Gymnonoti 177 Contents vii CHAPTER X. THE SCYPHOPHORI, HAPLOMI, AND XENOMI. PAGE Order Scyphophori. — The Mormyridae. — The Haplomi. — The Pikes. — The Mud minnows. — The Killifishes. — Amblyopsidae. — Kneriidae, etc. — The Galaxiidae. —Order Xenomi 188 CHAPTER XI. ACANTHOPTERYGII; SYNENTOGNATHI. Order Acanthopterygii, the Spiny-rayed Fishes. — Suborder Synentognathi. — The Garfishes: Belonidae. — The Flying-fishes: Exoccetidae 208 CHAPTER XII. PERCESOCES AND RHEGNOPTERI. Suborder Percesoces. — The Silversides: Atherinidae. — The Mullets: Mugi- lidae. — The Barracudas: Sphyrsenidae. — Stephanoberycidae. — Crossognathi- dae. — Cobitopsidae. — Suborder Rhegnopteri 215 CHAPTER XIII. PHTHINOBRANCHII: HEMIBRANCHII, LOPHOBRANCHII, AND HYPOSTOMIDES. Suborder Hemibranchii. — The Sticklebacks: Gasterosteidae. — The Aulo- rhynchidae. — Cornet -fishes: Fistulariidae. — The Trumpet -fishes: Aulostomi- dae. — The Snipefishes: Macrorhamphosidae. — The Shrimp-fishes: Centri- scidae. — The Lophobranchs. — The Solenostomidae. — The Pipefishes: Syn- gnathidae. — The Sea-horses: Hippocampus. — Suborder Hypostomides, the Sea-moths: Pegasidae 227 CHAPTER XIV. SALMOPERCjE AND OTHER TRANSITIONAL GROUPS- Suborder Salmopercae, the Trout-perches: Percopsidae. — Erismatopteridae. — Subordei Selenichthyes, the Opahs: Lamprididae. — Suborder Zeoidea. — Amphistiidae. — The John Dories: Zeidae. — Grammicolepidae 241 CHAPTER XV. BERYCOIDEI. The Berycoid Fishes. — The Alfonsinos: Berycidae. — The Soldier-fishes: Holo- centridae. — The Polymixiidae. — The Pine-cone Fishes: Monocentridae 250 viii Contents CHAPTER XVI. PERCOMORPHI. PAGE Suborder Percomorphi,the Mackerels and Perches. — The Mackerel Tribe: Scom- broidea. — The True Mackerels: Scombridae. — The Escolars: Gempylidae. — Scabbard and Cutlass-fishes: Lepidopidae and Trichiuridae. — The Palaeo- rhynchidae. — The Sailfishes: Istiophoridae. — The Swordfishes: Xiphiidae.. . . 258 CHAPTER XVII. CAVALLAS AND PAMPANOS. The Pam panes: Carangidae. — The Papagallos: Nematistiidae. — The Blue- fishes: Cheilodipteridae. — The Sergeant -fishes: Rachycentridae. — The But- ter-fishes: Stromateidae. — The Ragfishes: Icosteidae. — The Pomfrets: Bramidae. — The Dolphins: Coryphaenidae. — The Menidae. — The Pem- pheridae. — Luvaridae. — The Square-tails: Tetragonuridae. — The Crested Bandfishes: Lophotidae 272 CHAPTER XVIII. PERCOIDEA, OR PERCH-LIKE FISHES. Percoid Fishes. — The Pirate-perches: Aphredoderidae. — The Pigmy Sun- fishes: Elassomidae. — The Sunfishes: Centrarchidae. — Crappies and Rock Bass.— The Black Bass.— The Saleles: Kuhliidae.— The True Perches: Percidae. — Relations of Darters to Perches. — The Perches. — The Darters: Etheostominae 293 CHAPTER XIX. THE BASS AND THEIR RELATIVES. The Cardinal -fishes: Apogonidae. — The Anomalopidae. — The Asineopidae — The Robalos: Oxylabracidae. — The Sea-bass: Serranidae. — The Jewfishes. —The Groupers. — The Serranos. — The Flashers: Lobotidae. — The Big eyes: Priacanthidae. — The Pentacerotidae. — The Snappers: Lutianidae. — The Grunts: Haemulidae. — The Porgies: Sparidae. — The Picarels: Maenidae. — The Mojarras: Gerridae. — The Rudder-fishes: Kyphosidae 316 CHAPTER XX. THE SURMULLETS, THE CROAKERS AND THEIR RELATIVES. The Surmullets, or Goatfishes: Mullidae. — The Croakers: Sciaenidae. — The Sil- laginidae, etc. — The Jawfishes: Opisthognathidae, etc. — The Stone-wall Perch: Oplegnathidae. — The Swallowers: Chiasmodontidae. — The Mala- canthidae. — The Blanquillos: Latilidae. — The Bandfishes: Cepolidae. — The Cirrhitidae.— The Sandfishes: Trichodontidae 351 Contents ix CHAPTER XXI. LABYRINTHICI AND HOLCONOTI. PAGE The Labyrinthine Fishes. — The Climbing-perches: Anabantidae. — The Gou- ramis: Osphromenidae. — The Snake-head Mullets: Ophicephalidae. — Suborder Holconoti, the Surf -fishes. — The Embiotocidae — 365 CHAPTER XXII. CHROMIDES AND PHARYNGOGNATHI. Suborder Chromides. — The Cichlidae. — The Damsel-fishes: Pomacentridae. — Suborder Pharyngognathi. — The Wrasse Fishes: Labridae. — The Parrot- fishes: Scaridas 380 CHAPTER XXIII. THE SQUAMIPINNES. The Squamipinnes. — The Scorpididae. — The Boarfishes: Antigoniidae. — The Arches: Toxotidae. — The Ephippidae. — The Spade-fishes: Ilarchidae. — The Platacidae.— The Butterfly-fishes: Chaetodontidae.— The Pygaeidae.— The Moorish Idols: Zanclidae. — The Tangs: Acanthuridae. — Suborder Amphacanthi, the Siganidae 397 CHAPTER XXIV. SERIES PLECTOGNATHI. The Plectognaths. — The Scleroderms. — The Trigger-fishes: Balistidae. — The File-fishes: Monacanthidae. — The Spinacanthidae. — The Trunkfishes: Os- traciidae. — The Gymnodontes. — The Triodontidae. — The Globefishes: Tetra- odontidae. — The Porcupine-fishes: Diodontidae. — The Head -fishes: Molidae. . 411 CHAPTER XXV. PAREIOPLIT/E, OR MAILED-CHEEK FISHES. The Mailed-cheek Fishes. — The Scorpion -fishes: Scorpaenidae. — The Skil- fishes: Anoplopomidae. — The Greenlings: Hexagrammidae. — The Flat- heads or Kochi: Platycephalidae. — The Sculpins: Cottidae. — The Sea- poachers: Agonidae. — The Lump-suckers: Cyclopteridae. — The Sea-snails: Liparididae. — The Baikal Cods: Comephoridae. — Suborder Craniomi: the Gurnards, Triglidae. — The Peristediidae. — The Flying Gurnards: Cephala- canthidae 426 CHAPTER XXVI. GOBIOIDEI, DISCOCEPHALI, AND T^NIOSOMI. Suborder Gobioidei, the Gobies: Gobiidae. — Suborder Discocephali, the Shark- suckers: Echeneididae. — Suborder Tasniosomi, the Ribbon-fishes. — The Garfishes: Regalecidae. — The Dealfishes: Trachypteridae 459 x Contents CHAPTER XXVII. SUBORDER HETEROSOMATA. PAGE The Flatfishes. — Optic Nerves of Flounders. — Ancestry of Flounders. — The Flounders: Pleuronectidae. — The Turbot Tribe: Bothinae. — The Halibut Tribe: Hippoglossinae. — The Plaice Tribe: Pleuronectinae. — The Soles: Soleidae. — The Broad Soles: Achirinae. — The European Soles (Soleinae). — The Tongue -fishes: Cynoglossinae 481 CHAPTER XXVIII. SUBORDER JUGULARES. The Jugular-fishes. — The Weevers: Trachinidae. — The Nototheniidae. — The Leptoscopidae. — The Star-gazers: Uranoscopidae. — The Dragonets: Calli- onymidae. — The Dactyloscopidae 499 CHAPTER XXIX. THE BLENNIES: BLENNIID^. The Northern Blennies: Xiphidiinae, Stichaeiniae, etc. — The Quillfishes: Ptilich- thyidae.— The Blochiidae.— The Pataecidae, etc.— The Gadopsidae, etc.— The Wolf -fishes: Anarhichadidae. — The Eel-pouts: Zoarcidae. — The Cusk- eels: Ophidiidae. — Sand-lances: Ammodytidae. — The Pearlfishes: Fieras- feridae. — The Brotulidae. — Ateleopodidae. — Suborder Haplodoci. — Suborder Xenopterygii 507 CHAPTER XXX. OPISTHOMI AND ANACANTHINI. Order Opisthomi. — Order Anacanthini. — The Codfishes: Gadidae. — The Hakes: Merlutiidae. — The Grenadiers: Macrouridae 532 CHAPTER XXXI. ORDER PEDICULATI: THE ANGLERS. The Angler-fishes. — The Fishing-frogs: Lophiidae. — The Sea-devils: Ceratiidae. — The Frogfishes: Antennariidae. — The Batfishes: Ogcocephalidae 542 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOL. II. PAGE Shoulder-girdle of a Flounder, Paralichlhys calijornicus 2 Palaoniscum jrieslebenense 14 Eurynotus crenatus 15 Dorypterus hoffmani 16 Chondrosteus acipenseroides 18 Acipenser sturio, Common Sturgeon 19 Acipenser rubicundus, Lake Sturgeon 20 Scaphirhynchus platyrhynchus, Shovel-nosed Sturgeon 20 Polyodon spathula, Paddle-fish, side-view 21 Polyodon spathula, Paddle-fish, view from below 21 Psephurus gladius 21 Gyrodus hexagonus 22 Mesturus verrucosus 23 Semionotus kapffi 24 Dapedium politum 25 Telragonolepis semidncius 26 Isopholis orthostomus 27 Lepisosteus osseus, Long-nosed Garpike ... 27 Caturus elongatus 28 Notagogus pentlandi 28 Ptycholepis curtus 28 Pholidophorus crenulatus 29 Lepisosteus tristcechus, Alligator-gar 31 Lower Jaw of Amia calva, showing the gular plate 33 Amia calva, Bowfin (female) 35 Megalurus elegantissimus 36 Leptolepis dubius 41 Elops saurus, Ten-pounder 42 Holcolepis lewesiensis 42 Tarpon atlanticus, Tarpon or Grand Ecaille 43 Albula vulpes, Lady-fish 44 Chanos chanos, Milkfish 45 Hiodon tergisus, Mooneye 45 Istieus grandis 46 Chirothrix libanicus 46 xi xii List of Illustrations PAGE Skeleton of Portheus molassus : 47 Ctenothrissa vexillijera 48 Clupea harengus, Herring 49 Pomolobus pseudoharengus, Alewife 50 Brevoortia tyrannus, Menhaden 51 Diplomystus humilis 52 Dorosoma cepedianum, Hickory-shad 53 Anchovia perlhecata, Silver Anchovy 54 Notogoneus osculus 55 Phareodus testis 57 Deposits of Green River Shales, bearing Phareodus, at Fossil, Wyoming 58 A Day's Catch of fossil-fishes, Green River Eocene Shales , . . . 59 Alepocephalus agassizii 60 Coregonus williamsoni, Rocky Mountain Whitefish 63 Coregonus clupeijormis, Whitefish 64 Argyrosomus nigripinnis, Bluefin Cisco 66 Stenodus mackenziei, Tnconnu 67 Oncorhynchus tschawytscha, Quinnat Salmon (female) 6g Oncorhynchus tschawytscha, King-salmon (grilse) 70 Oncorhynchus nerka, Male Red Salmon 70 Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, Humpback Salmon (female) 72 Oncorhynchus masou, Masu 72 Oncorhynchus nerka, Red Salmon (mutilated dwarf male after spawning) 76 Oncorhynchus tschawytscha, Quinnat Salmon (dying after spawning) 77 Oncorhynchus tschawytscha, Quinnat Salmon 79 Salmo irideus shasta, Rainbow Trout (male)- 98 Salmo irideus shasta, Rainbow Trout (female) 99 Salmo rivularis, Steelhead Trout 101 Head of Adult Troutworm, Dibothrium cordiceps. From intestine of white pelican 103 Median segments of Dibothrium cordiceps 103 Salmo henshaivi, Tahoe Trout 104 Salmo stomias, Green-back Trout 105 Salmo macdonaldi, Yellow-fin Trout of Twin Lakes 105 Salmo clarkii spilurus, Rio Grande Trout 106 Salmo clarkii pleuriticus, Colorado River Trout 106 Hucho blackistoni, Ito 107 Salvelinus oquassa, Rangeley Trout 108 Salvelinus aureolus, Sunapee Trout 109 Salvelinus fontinalis, Speckled Trout (male) no Salvelinus jontinalis, Speckled Trout in Salvelinus malma, Malma Trout 113 Salvelinus malma, Dolly Varden Trout 114 Cristivomer namaycush, Great Lake Trout 114 Plecoglossus altivelis, Ayu, or Japanese Samlet 116 List of Illustrations xiii PAGE Thymattus signijer, Alaska Grayling 120 Thymallus tricolor, Michigan Grayling 122 Osmerus mordax, Smelt 123 Thaleichthys pretiosus, Eulachon or Ulchen 124 Page of William Clark's Handwriting with Sketch of the Eulachon (Thaleich- thys pacificus) 125 Mallotus villosus, Capelin 126 Salanx hyalocranius, Icefish 128 Stomias ferox 128 Chauliodus sloanei 129 Synodus jaetens, Lizard-fish 130 Ipnops murrayi 131 Cetomimus gillii .132 Diaphus lucidus, Headlight-fish 132 Myctophumopalinum, Lantern-fish 133 Ceratoscopdus madeirensis, Lantern-fish 133 Rhinellus jurcatus 134 Plagyodus jerox, Lancet-fish 135 Eurypholis sulcidens 136 Eurypholis freyeri 137 Argyropelecus oljersi 137 Aldrovandia gracilis 138 Anguilla chrisypa, Common Eel 143 Anguilla chrisypa, Larva of Common Eel 148 Simenchelys parasiticus, Pug-nosed Eel 149 Synaphobranchus pinnatus 149 Leptocephalus conger, Conger-eel 150 Larva of Conger-eel, Leptocephalus conger 150 Xyrias revulsus 151 Myrichthys pantostigmius 151 Ophichthus ocellatus .. 151 Nemichthys avocetta, Thread-eel 152 Jaws of Nemichthys avocetta 152 Murcena retijera 153 Gymnothorax berndti 154 Gymnothorax jordani 155 Gymnothorax moringa, Moray 155 Derichthys serpentinus 156 Gastrostomus bairdi, Gulper-eel 156 Notacanthus phasganorus 158 Inner view of shoulder-girdle of Buffalo-fish (Ictiobus bubalus}, showing the mesocoracoid 160 Weberian apparatus and air-bladder of Carp 160 Brycon dentex 162 Pharyngeal bones and teeth of European Chub, Leuciscus cephalus 163 xiv List of Illustrations PAGE Rhinichthys dulcis, Black -nosed Dace 164 Notropis hudsonius, White Chub 165 Ericymba buccata, Silver-jaw Minnow 165 Notropis ivhipplei, Silverfin 166 Camposloma anomalum, Stone-roller 167 Head of Day-chub, Exoglossum maxittingua 167 Semotilus atromaculatus, Horned Dace , 168 Abramis chrysoleucus, Shiner 168 Ptychocheilus grandis, Squawfish 169 Leuciscus lineatus, Chub of the Great Basin 169 Lower Pharyngeal of Placopharynx duquesnii 171 Erimyzon sucetta, Creekfish or Chub-sucker 172 Ictiobus cyprinella, Buffalo-fish 173 Carpiodes cyprinus, Carp-sucker 173 Catostomus commersoni, Common Sucker 174 Catostomus occidentalis, California Sucker 174 Pharyngeal teeth of Oregon Sucker, Catostomus macrocheilus 175 Xyrauchen cypho, Razor-back Sucker1 175 Felichthys felis, Gaff-topsail Cat 179 Galeichthys milberti, Sea Catfish 179 Ictalurus punctatus, Channel Catfish 180 Ameiurus nebulosus, Horned Pout 181 Schilbeodes furiosus, Mad-tom. Showing the poisoned pectoral spine 182 Torpedo electricus, Electric Catfish 183 Chlarias breviceps, African Catfish 185 Loricaria aurea, Mailed Catfish from Venezuela 186 Gnathonemus curuiroslris 189 Esox lucius, Pike 191 Esox masquinongy, Muskallunge 192 Umbra pygmcea, Mud-minnow 193 Anableps dovii, Four-eyed Fish 195 Cyprinodon variegatus, Round Minnow 196 Jordanella florida, Everglade Minnow 197 Fundulis majalis, Mayfish (male) 198 Fundulis majalis, Mayfish (female) 198 Zygonectes notatus, Top-minnow 198 Empetrichthys merriami, Death Valley Fish 199 Xiphophorus helleri, Sword-tail Minnow (male) 199 Goodea luitpoldi, a Viviparous Fish 200 Chologaster cornutus, Dismal Swamp Fish 201 Typhlichthys subterraneus, Blind Cave-fish 202 Amblyopsis spekzus, Blindfish of the Mammoth Cave 203 Dallia pectoralis, Alaska Blackfish 206 Tylosurus acus, Needle-fish 210 Scombresox saurus, Saury 212 List of Illustrations xv PAGE Hyporhamphus unifasciatus, Halfbeak 212 Fodiator acutus, Sharp-nosed Flying-fish 213 Cypselurus calijornicus, Catalina Flying-fish 214 Chirostoma humboldtianum, Pescado bianco 217 Kirtlandia vagrans, Silverside or Brit 217 Atherinopsis calijorniensis, Blue Smelt or Fez del Rey 218 Iso flos-maris, Flower of the Waves 218 Mugil cephalus, Striped Mullet 221 Joturus pichardi, Joturo or Bobo 222 Sphyrana barracuda, Barracuda 223 Cobitopsis acuta 224 Shoulder-girdle of a Threadfin, Polydactylus approximans 225 Polydactylus octonemus, Threadfin 225 Shoulder-girdle of a Stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus 227 Shoulder-girdle of Fistularia petimba, showing greatly extended interclavicle, the surface ossified 227 Gasterosteus aculeatus, Three-spined Stickleback 232 Apeltes quadracus, Four-spined Stickleback 232 Aulostomus chinensis, Trumpet-fish 234 Macrorhamphosus sagijue, Japanese Snipefish 234 jEoliscus strigatus, Shrimp-fish 235 jEoliscus heinrichi 235 Solenostomus cyanopterus 237 Hippocampus hudsonius, Sea-horse 238 Zalises umitengu, Sea-moth 240 Percopsis guttatus, Sand-roller 241 Erismatopterus endlicheri 242 Columbia transmontana, Oregon Trout-perch 242 Shoulder-girdle of the Opah, Lampris guttatus (Brunniach), showing the en- larged infraclavicle 243 Semiophorus velifer 246 Amphistium paradoxum 247 Zeus jaber, John Dory 248 Skull of a Berycoidfish, Beryx splendens, showing the orbitosphenoid 250 Beryx splendens 251 Hoplopteryx lewesiensis 252 Paratrachichthys prosthemius 253 Holocentrus ascenscionis, Soldier-fish 254 Holocentrus ittodai 254 Ostichthys japonicus 255 Monocentris japonicus, Pine-cone Fish 256 Scomber scombrus, Mackerel 260 Germo alalunga, Long-fin Albacore 263 Scomberomorus maculatus, Spanish Mackerel 264 Trichiurus Upturns, Cutlass-fish 268 xvi List of Illustrations PAGE Pal&orhynchus glarisianus 268 Xiphias gladius, Young Swordfish 269 Xiphias gladius, Swordfish 270 Naucrates ductor, Pilot-fish 273 Seriola lalandi, Amber-fish 273 Trachurus trachurus, Saurel 274 Carangus chrysos, Yellow Mackerel 275 Trachinotus carolinus, the Pampano 277 Cheilopdipterus saltatrix, Bluefish 279 Rachycentron canadum, Sergeant-fish 282 Peprilus paru, Harvest -fish 284 Gobiomorus gronovii, Portuguese Man-of-War Fish 285 Coryphcena hippurus, Dolphin or Dorado 287 Mene macidata 288 Gasteronemus rhombeus 289 Pempheris mulleri, Catalufa de lo Alto 289 Pempheris nyctereutes 290 Luvarus imperialis, Louvar 290 Aphredoderus sayanus, Pirate Perch 295 Elassoma evergladei, Everglade Pigmy Perch 295 Skull of the Rock Bass, Ambloplites rupestris 296 Pomoxis annularis, Crappie 297 Pomoxis annularis, Crappie (from life) 298 Ambloplites rupestris, Rock Bass 299 Mesogonistius chatodon, Banded Sunfish 299 Lepomis pattidus, Blue-gill 300 Lepomis megalotis, Long-eared Sunfish 300 Eupomotis gibbosus, Common Sunfish 301 Micropterus dolomieu, Small Mouth Black Bass 303 Micropterus salmoides, Large Mouth Black Bass 305 Perca flavescens, Yellow perch 308 Stizostedion canadense, Sauger 309 Aspro asper, Aspron 309 Zingel zingel, Zingel. . . ." 310 Percina caprodes, Log-perch 311 Hadropterus aspro, Black-sided Darter 311 Diplesion blennioides, Green-sided Darter 312 Bokosoma olmstedi, Tessellated Darter 312 Crystallaria asprella, Crystal Darter 313 Ammocrypta clara, Sand-darter 313 Etheostoma jordani 314 Etheostoma camurum, Blue-breasted Darter 314 Apogon retrosella, Cardinal-fish 316 Telescopias gilberti, Kurom^tsu 318 Apogon semilincatus 319 List of Illustrations xvii PAGE Oxylabrax undecimahs, Robalo 319 Morone americana, White Perch 322 Promicrops itaiara, Florida Jewfish 323 Epinephelus striatus, Nassau Grouper: Cherna criolla 324 Epinephelus drummond-hayi, John Paw or Speckled Hind 325 Epinephelus morio, Red Grouper 325 Epinephelus adscensionis, Red Hind 326 Mycteroperca venenosa, Yellow-fin Grouper 327 Hypoplectrus unicolor nigricans 328 Epinepltelus niveatus, Snowy Grouper 329 Rypticus bistrispinus, Soapfish 330 Lobotes surinamensis, Flasher 331 Priacanthus arenatus, Catalufa 331 Pseudopriacanthus allus, Big-eye 332 Lutianus griseus, Gray Snapper 334 Lutianus apodus, Schoolmaster 335 Hoplopagrus gunlheri 336 Lutianus synagris, Lane Snapper or Biajaiba 3.36 Ocyurus chrysurus, Yellow-tail Snapper 337 Etelis oculatus, Cachucho 337 Xenocys jessia 338 Aphareus jurcatus 339 Hcemulon plumieri, Grunt 340 Anisotremus virginicus, Porkfish 341 Pagrus major, Red Tai of Japan 342 Ebisu, the Fish-god of Japan, bearing a Red Tai 343 Stenotomus chrysops. Scup 344 Calamus bajonado, Jolt-head Porgy 345 Calamus proridens, Little-head Porgy 345 Diplodus holbrooki 346 Archosargus unimaculatus, Salema, Striped Sheepshead 347 Xystama cinereum, Mojarra 348 Gerres olisthostomus, Irish Pampano 349 Kyphosus sectatrix,, Chopa or Rudder-fish 349 Apomotis cyanellus, Blue-green Sunfish 350 Pseudupeneus maculatus, Red Goatfish or Salmonete 351 Mullus auratus, Golden Surmullet 352 Cynoscion nebulosus, Spotted Weakfish 353 Bairdiella chrysura, Mademoiselle 355 Scianops ocellata, Red Drum 356 Umbrina sinaloa, Yellow-fin Roncador 357 Menticirrhus americanus, Kingfish 357 Pogonias chromis, Drum 358 Gnathypops evermanni 359 Opisthognathus macrognathus, Jawfish 359 xviii List of Illustrations PAGE Opisthognathus nigromarginatus 360 Chiasmodon niger, Black Swallower 360 Cirrhitus rivulatus 364 Trichodon trichodon, Sandfish 364 Anabas scandens, Climbing Perch 366 Channa jormosana 371 Ophiccephalus barca, Snake-headed China-fish 371 Cymatogasler aggregates, White Surf -fish 372 Hysterocarpus traski, Fresh-water Viviparous Perch 373 Hypsurus caryi 373 Damalichthys argyrosomus, White Surf-fish 374 Rhacochilus toxotes, Thick-lipped Surf -fish 374 Hypocritichthys analis, Silver Surf -fish, Viviparous 375 Hysterocarpus traski, Viviparous Perch (male) 379 Hypsypops rubicunda, Garibaldi 382 Pomacentrus leucosticlus, Damsel-fish 382 Glyphisodon marginatus, Cockeye Pilot 383 Microspalhodon dor sails, Indigo Damsel-fish 384 Tautoga onitis, Tautog 384 Tautoga onitis, Tautog 386 Lachnolaimus jalcatus, Capitaine or Hogfish 387 Xyrichthys psittacus, Razor-fish 388 Pimelometopon pulcher, Redfish (male) 389 Lepidaplois perditio 389 Pharyngeals of Italian Parrot-fish, Sparisoma cretense. a, Upper; b, Lower. . . . 391 Jaws of Parrot-fish, Calolomus xenodon 391 Cryptotomus beryllinus 391 Sparisoma hoplomystax 392 Sparisoma abildgaardi, Red Parrot-fish 392 Jaws of Blue Parrot-fish, Scarus cceruleus 393 Upper pharyngeals of a Parrot -fish, Scarus strongylocephalus ... 393 Lower pharyngeals of a Parrot-fish, Scarus strongylocephalus 393 Scarus emblematicus 394 Scarus aeruleus, Blue Parrot-fish 394 Scarus vetula, Parrot-fish 395 Halichares bivittatus, Slippery Dick or Doncella, a fish of the coral-reefs 399 Mononactylus argenteus 397 Psettus sebce 399 Chatodipterus jaber, Spadefish 401 Chatodon capistratus, Butterfly-fish 402 Pomacanthus arcuatus, Black Angel-fish 403 Holacanthus ciliaris, Angel-fish or Isabelita 404 Holacanthus tricolor, Rock Beauty 405 Zanclus canescens, Moorish Idol 406 Teuthis caruleus, Blue Tang 407 List of Illustrations xix PAGE Teuthis bahianus, Brown Tang 408 Balisles carolinensis, Trigger-fish 412 Osbeckia Icevis, File-fish 414 A manses scopas, Needle-bearing File-fish 414 Stephanolepis hispidus, Common File-fish 415 Lactophrys tricornis Horned Trunkfish, Cowfish, or Cuckold 416 Ostracion cornutum, Horned Trunkfish 416 Lactophrys bicaudalis, Spotted Trunkfish 416 Lactophrys bicaudalis, Spotted Trunkfish (face view) 417 Lactophrys triqueter, Spineless Trunkfish 417 Lactophrys trigonus, Hornless Trunkfish 418 Skeleton of the Cowfish, Lactophrys tricornis 418 Lagocephalus Icevigatus, Silvery Puffer 419 Spheroides spengleri, Puffer, Inflated 420 Spheroides maculatus, Puffer 420 Telraodon meleagris 421 Tetraodon setosus, Bristly Globefish 422 Diodon hystrix, Porcupine-fish 422 Chilomyctcrus scha*pfi, Rabbit-fish 423 Mola mola, Headfish (adult) 424 Ranzania makua, King of the Mackerel, from Honolulu 425 Sebastes marinus, Rosefish 427 Skull of Scorpcenichthys marmoratus 427 Sebaslolobus altivelis 428 Sebastodes mystinus,. Priest -fish 430 Sebastichthys serriceps 431 Sebastichthys nigrocinctus, Banded Rockfish 432 Scorp&na grandicornis, Lion-fish 433 Scorpana mystes, Sea-scorpion 434 Plerois volitans, Lion-fish or Sausolele 435 Emmydrichthys -vulcanus, Black Nohu or Poison-fish 436 Snyderina yamanokami 437 Trachicephales uranoscopus 438 Anoplopoma fimbria, Skilfish 438 Pleurogrammus monopterygius, Atka-fish 439 Hexagrammos docagrammus, Greenling 440 Ophiodon elongatus, Cultus Cod 440 Jordania zonope 442 Astrolytes notospilotus 442 Hemilepidotus jordani, Irish Lord 443 Triglops pingeli 443 Enophrys bison, Buffalo Sculpin 443 Ceratocottus diceraus 444 Elanura jorficata 444 Cottus punctulalus, Yellowstone Miller's Thumb 444 xx List of Illustrations PAGE Uranidea tennis, Miller's Thumb 445 Coitus evermanni .' 445 Cottus gulosus, California Miller's Thumb 446 Myxocephalus niger, Pribilof Sculpin 446 Myxocephalus octodecimspinosus, i8-spined Sculpin 447 Oncocottus quadricornis 447 Blepsias cirrhosus 448 Hemitripterus americanus, Sea-raven 448 Oligocottus maculosus 449 Ereunias grallator 450 Psychrolutes paradoxus, Sleek Sculpin 451 Gilbertidia sigolutes 451 Rhamphocottus richardsoni, Richardson's Sculpin * 45 1 Slelgis vulsus 451 Draciscus sachi 452 Pallasina barbata, Agonoid-fish 453 Aspidophoroides monopterygius 453 Cyclopterus lumpus, Lumpfish 454 Crystallias matsushima, Liparid 454 Neoliparis mucosus, Snailfish 455 Prionotus evolans, Sea-robin 456 Cephalacanthus volitans, Flying Gurnard 4:7 Perisledion miniatum 45 7 Philypnus dormitor, Guavina de Rio 460 Eleotris pisonis, Dormeur 460 Dormilator maculatus, Guavina mapo 461 Vireosa hance 46 r Gobionellus oceanicus, Esmeralda de Mar 461 Pterogobius daimio 462 Aboma etheostoma, Darter Goby 462 Gillichthys mirabilis, Long-jawed Goby 463 Boleophthalmus chinensis, Pond-skipper 466 Periophthalmus barbarus, Mud-skippy 466 Eut&niichthys gillii 467 Leptecheneis naucrates, Sucking-fish or Pegador 468 Rhombochirus osteochir 469 Regaleaus glesneacsanius, Glesnaes Garfish 476 Trachypterus rex-salmonorum, Dealfish or King of the Salmon 478 Young Flounder just hatched 482 Pseudopleuronectes americanus, Larval Flounder 483 Larval Stages of Platophrys podas, a Flounder 484 Platophrys lunalus, Peacock Flounder 485 Heterocercal Tail of Young Trout, Salmo jario 486 Homocercal Tail of a Flounder, Paralichthys calijornicus 486 Lophopsetta maculaia, Window-pane 487 List of Illustrations xxi PAGE Syacium papillosum, Wide-eyed Flounder 488 Etopus crossotus , 489 Hippoglossus hippoglossus, Halibut 492 Paralichthys dentatus, Wide-mouthed Flounder 493 Liopsetta putnami, Eel-back Flounder 494 Platichthys stellatus, Starry Flounder 495 Achirus lineatus, Hog-choker Sole 496 Symphurus plagiusa 498 Pteropsaron evolans 502- Bathymaster signatus 503; Ariscopus iburius 504 Astroscopus guUatus, Star-gazer 505 NeocHnus satiricus, Sarcastic Blenny 507 Gibbonsia evides, Kelp Blenny 508 Blennius cristatus 508 Alticus atlaniicus, Rock-skipper 509 Alticus saliens, Lizard -skipper 509 Emblemaria atlantica 510 Scartichthys enosima, Fish of the rock -pools of the sacred island of Enoshima, Japan 510 Zacalles bryope 511 Bryostemma tarsodes 511 Exerpes asper 511 Pholis gunnellus, Gunnel 512 Xiphistes chirus. 512 Ozorthe dictyogramma 513 Stidi&us punctatus 513 Bryostemma otohime 514 Ptilichthys goodei, Quillfish 514 Blochius longirostris 514 Xiphasia setifera .v 515 Cryptacanthodes maculatus, Wrymouth 516 Anarhichas lupus, Wolf-fish -. 517 Skull of Anarrhichthys ocellatus 517 Zoacres anguillaris, Eel-pout 518 Lycodes reticulatus, Eel-pout 519 Lycenchelys verrilli 519 Scytalina cerdale 519 Rissola marginata, Cusk-eel 520 Lycodapus dermatinus 520 Ammodytes americanus, Sand-lance 521 Embolichthys mitsukurii 521 Fierasjer dubius, Pearlfish, Embedded in Pearl 522 Fierasjer acus, Pearlfish 523 Brotula barbata 524 xxii List of Illustrations PAGE Lucijuga subttrranea, Blind Brotula 524 Opsanus pardus, Leopard Toadfish 525 Porichthys porosissimus, Singing Fish (with Many Lateral Lines) 526 Aspasma ciconue 530 Canlarchus maandricus, Clingfish 531 Mastacembelus ellipsifer 532 Gadits callarias, Codfish 533 Skull of Haddock, Melanogrammus aglifinus 536 M elanogrammus agifinus, Haddock 536 Theragra chalcogramma, Pollock 537 Microgradus tomcod, Tomcod 538 Lota maculosa, Burbot 539 Enchelyopus cimbrius, Four-bearded Rockling 539 Merluccius productus, California Hake 540 Coryphanoides carapinus, showing leptocercal tail 540 C&lorhynckus carminatus, Grenadier 541 Steindachnerella argentea 541 Lophius litulon, Anko or Fishing-frog 545 Cryptopsaras couesi 547 Ceratias holbotti, Deep-sea Angler 548 Caulophryne jordani 548 Pterophryne tumida, Sargassum-fish, one of the Anglers 549 Antennarius nox, Fishing-frog 550 Shoulder-girdle of a Batfish, Ogcocephdus radiatus 551 Antennarius scaber, Frogfish 551 Ogcocephalus vespertilio 552 Ogcocephalus vespertilio, Batfish 553 Ogcocephalus vespertilio, Batfish 553 ERRATA * VOL. II Page xviii, line 7, for Ophicaphalus read Ophicephalus xviii, " 37, for Mononactylus read Monodactylus xix, " 33, for Trachicephaks read Trachicephalus xx, " 37, for Regaleaus glesneacsanius read Regakcvs russelli xxi, " 2, for Etopus read Etropus xxi, " 35, for Zoacres read Zoarces i, " 7, for jav/s reorf jaw 14, " 9, for hetercoercal read heterocercal r36, " 3, for Evermannellus read Evermannella 170, " u, for the fin read the dorsal fin 171, " 10, for have reatf has 303, legend, for Lacepede read Lace"pede 307, line 14, for vertebrate read vertebral 311, " 12, not clearly stated. The air-bladder is least developed in those species which cling closest to the bottom of the stream 350, legend, for Apomotes read Apomatis 355, line 18, for ours read our 357, " 14, for chaetodon read Cha;todon 358, " 17, for ScricRnilce read ScianilcR 360, " 14, for Percesoces read Percesoces 409, " 1 6, for naseus read Naseus 419, " 23, for of the generic of this group read separating the group into genera 440, " 17, for Chinnook read Chinook 459, " 24, for but the most read but most 459, " 25, for thme read them 467, " 14, for Typhogobius read Typhlogobius 472, lines 34, 35, omit "but never in the United States". Specimens of Regakcus have been taken at Anclote Key, Florida, and at the Tortugas. 580, col. 3, line 17, for 165 read 105 The adoption of the Code of the International Congress of Zoology necessitates a few changes in generic names used in this book. Thus Amia (ganoid) becomes Amiatus Apogon becomes Amia Scarus becomes Cattyodon Teuthis becomes Hepatus A canthurus becomes Monoceros Paramia becomes Cheilodipterus Centropomus (Oxylabrax) remains Centropomus Lucioperca (Centropomus} becomes Sander Pomatomus (Cheilodipterus) remains Pomatomus Nomeus (Gobiomorus) remains Nomeus Galeus (Gakorhinus} remains Gckus Carcharias (Carcharhinus) remains Carcharias * For most of this list of errata I am indebted to the kindly interest of Dr. B. W. Evermann. CHAPTER I THE GANOIDS UBCLASS Actinopteri. --In our glance over the taxon- omy of the earlier Chordates, or fish-like vertebrates, we have detached from the main stem one after an- other a long series of archaic or primitive types. We have first set off those with rudimentary notochord, then those with retro- gressive development who lose the notochord, then those with- out skull or brain, then those without limbs or lower jaws. The residue assume the fish-like form of body, but still show great differences among themselves. We have then detached those without membrane-bones, or trace of lung or air-bladder. We next part company with those having the air-bladder a veritable lung, and those with an ancient type of paired fins, a jointed axis fringed with rays, and those having the palate still forming the upper jaw. We have finally left only those having fish -jaws, fish-fins, and in general the structure of the modern fish. For all these in all their variety, as a class or subclass, the name Actinopteri, or Actinopterygii, suggested by Professor Cope, is now generally adopted. The shorter form, Actinopteri, being equally correct is certainly preferable. This term (aKris, ray ; nrepov or Ttrepvg, fin) refers to the structure of the paired fins. In all these fishes the bones supporting the fin-rays are highly specialized and at the same time con- cealed by the general integument of the body. In general two bones connect the pectoral fin with the shoulder-girdle. The hypercoracoid is a flat square bone, usually perforated by a foramen. Lying below it and parallel with it is the irregu- larly formed hypocoracoid. Attached to them is a row of bones, the actinosts, or pterygials, short, often hour-glass-shaped, which actually support the fin-rays. In the more specialized forms, or Teleosts, the actinosts are few (four to six) in number, n-i i ' The Ganoids but in the more primitive types, or Ganoids, they may remain numerous, a reminiscence of the condition seen in the Crossop- terygians, and especially in Polypterus. Other variations may occur ; the two coracoids sometimes are imperfect or specially modified, the upper sometimes without a foramen, and the ac- tinosts may be distorted in form or position. The Series Ganoidei.— Among the lower Acti- nopteri many archaic traits still persist, and in its earlier representa- tives the group ap- proaches closely to the Crossopterygii, although no forms actually inter- mediate are known either living or fossil. The great group of Actinopteri may be divided into two series or subclasses, the Ganoidei, or Chrondrostei, containing those forms, mostly extinct, which re- tain archaic traits of one sort or another, and the Teleostei, or bony fishes, in which most of the primitive characters have disappeared. Doubtless all of the Teleostei are descended from a ganoid ancestry. Even among the Ganoidei, as the term is here restricted, there remains a very great variety of form and structure. The fossil and existing forms do not form continuous series, but rep- resent the tips and remains of many diverging branches perhaps from some Crossopterygian central stock. The group constitutes a.t least three distinct orders and, as a whole, does not admit of FIG. 1. — Shoulder-girdle of a Flounder, Para- lichthys californicus (Ay res). The Ganoids 3 perfect definition. In most but not all of the species the tail is distinctly and obviously heterocercal, the lack of symmetry of the tail in some Teleosts being confined to the bones and not evident without dissection. Most of the Ganoids have the skeleton still cartilaginous, and in some it remains in a very primitive condition. Usually the Ganoids have an armature of bony plates, diamond-shaped, with an enamel like that developed on the teeth. In all of them the pectoral fin has numerous basal bones or actinosts. All of them have the air- bladder highly developed, usually cellular and functional as a lung, but connecting with the dorsal side of the gullet, not with the ventral side as in the Dipnoans. In all living forms there is a more or less perfect optic chiasma. These ancient forms retain also the many valves of the arterial bulb and the spiral valve of the intestines found in the more archaic types of fishes. But traces of some or all of these structures are found in some bony fishes, and their presence in the Ganoids by no means justifies the union of the Ganoids with the sharks, Dipnoans, and Crossopterygians to form a great primary class, Pal&ich- thyes, as proposed by Dr. Gunther. Almost every form of body may be found among the Ganoids. In the Mesozoic seas these fishes were scarcely less varied and perhaps scarcely less abundant than the Teleosts in the seas of to-day. They far exceed the Crossopterygians in number and variety of forms. Transitional forms connecting the two groups are thus far not recognized. So far as fossils show, the characteristic actinopterous fin with its reduced and altered basal bones appeared at once without in- tervening gradations. The name Ganoidei (ydvos, brightness; eidos, resemblance), alluding to the enameled plates, was first given by Agassiz to those forms, mostly extinct, which were covered with bony scales or hard plates of one sort or another. As the term was originally defined, mailed catfishes, sea-horses, Agonidce, Arthrodires, Ostracophores, and other wholly unrelated types were included with the garpikes and sturgeons as Ganoids. Most of these intruding forms among living fishes were eliminated by Johannes Miiller, who recognized the various archaic characters common to the existing forms after the removal of the mailed Teleosts. Still later Huxley separated the Crossopterygians as a distinct 4 The Ganoids group, while others have shown that the Ostracophori and Arthro- dira should be placed far from the garpike in systematic classi- fication. Cope, Woodward, Hay, and others have dropped the name Ganoid altogether as productive of confusion through the many meanings attached to it. Others have kept it as a convenient group name for the orders of archaic Actinopteri. For these varied and more or less divergent forms it seems con- venient to retain it. As an adjective "ganoid" is sometimes used as descriptive of bony plates or enameled scales, some- in the sense of archaic, as applied to fishes. Are the Ganoids a Natural Group ? — Several writers have urged that the Ganoidei, even as thus restricted, should not be considered as a natural group, whether subclass, order, or group of orders. The reasons for this view in brief are the following: 1. The group is heterogeneous. The Amiidaz differ more from the other Ganoids than they do from the herring-like Teleosts. The garpikes, sturgeons, paddle-fishes likewise di- verge widely from each other and from the Pal&omscida and the Platysomida. Each of the living families represents the residue or culmination of a long series, in some cases advancing, as in the case of the bowfin, sometimes perhaps degenerating, as in the case of the sturgeons. 2. Of the traits possessed in common by these forms, several (the cellular air-bladder, the many valves in the heart, the spiral valve in the intestine, the heterocercal tail) are all pos- sessed in greater or less degree by certain Isospondyli or allies of the herring. All these characters are still better developed in Crossoptergyii and Dipneusti, and each one disappears by degrees. Of the characters drawn from the soft parts we can know nothing so far as the extinct Ganoids are concerned. 3. The optic chiasma, thus far characteristic of Ganoids as distinct from Teleosts, may have no great value. It is urged that in closely related species of lizards some have the optic chiasma and others do not. This, however, proves nothing as to the value of the same character among fishes. 4. The transition from Ganoids to Teleosts is of much the same character as the transition from spiny-rayed to soft- rayed fishes, or that from fishes with a duct to the air-bladder to those without such duct. The Ganoids 5 Admitting all this, it is nevertheless natural and convenient to retain the Ganoidei (or Chrondrostei if the older name be discarded on account of the many meanings attached to it) as a group equivalent to that of Teleostei within the class or subclass of Actinopteri. It comprises the transitional forms between the Crossopterygii and the bony fishes, and its members are especially characteristic of the Mesozoic age, ranging from the Devonian to the present era. Of the extensive discussion relating to this important ques- tion we may quote two arguments for the retention of the sub- class of Ganoids, the first by Francis M. Balfour and William Kitchen Parker, the second from the pen of Theodore Gill. Balfour and Parker (" Structure and Development of Lepi- dosteus," pp. 430-433) thus discuss the Systematic Position of Lepidosteus. — "Alexander Agassiz con- cludes his memoir on the development of Lepidosteus by point- ing out that in spite of certain affinities in other directions this form is 'not so far removed from the bony fishes as has been supposed.' Our own observations go far to confirm Agas- siz's opinion. "Apart from the complete segmentation, the general de- velopment of Lepidosteus is strikingly Teleostean. In addition to the general Teleostean features of the embryo and larva, which can only be appreciated by those who have had an oppor- tunity of practically working at the subject, we may point to the following developmental features * as indicative of Teleos- tean affinities: " (i) The formation of the nervous system as a solid keel of the epiblast. " (2) The division of the epiblast into a nervous and epi- dermic stratum. " (3) The mode of development of the gut. "(4) The mode of development of the pronephros; though the pronephros of Lepidosteus has primitive characters not retained by Teleostei. " (5) The early stages in the development of the vertebral column. * The features enumerated above are not in all cases confined to Lepidos- teus and Teleostei, but are always eminently characteristic of the latter. 6 The Ganoids "In addition to these, so to speak, purely embryonic char- acters there are not a few important adult characters : " (i) The continuity of the oviducts with the genital glands. " (2) The small size of the pancreas, and the presence of numerous so-called pancreatic caeca. " (3) The somewhat coiled small intestine. " (4) Certain characters of the brain, e.g., the large size of the cerebellum; the presence of the so-called lobi inferiores on the infundibulum, and of tori semi-circulares in the mid- brain. " In spite of the undoubtedly important list of features to which we have just called attention, a list containing not less important characters, both embryological and adult, separating Lepidosteus from the Teleostei, can be drawn up: ^ " (i) The character of the truncus arteriosus. " (2) The fact of the genital ducts joining the ureters. " (3) The presence of vasa efferentia in the male carrying the semen from the testes to the kidney, and through the tubules of the latter into the kidney-duct. " (4) The presence of a well-developed opercular gill. "(5) The presence of a spiral valve; though this character may possibly break down with the extension of our knowledge. " (6) The typical Ganoid characters of the thalamencephalon and the cerebral hemispheres. " (7) The chiasma of the optic nerves. "(8) The absence. of a pecten, and presence of a vascular membrane between the vitreous humor and the retina. " (9) The opisthoccelous form of the vertebrae. " (10) The articulation of the ventral parts of the haemal arches of the tail with the processes of the vertebral column. "(n) The absence of a division of the muscles into dorso- lateral and ventro-lateral divisions. "(12) The complete segmentation of the ovum. "The list just given appears to us sufficient to demonstrate that Lepidosteus cannot be classed with the Teleostei; and we hold that Miiller's view is correct, according to which Lepi- dosteus is a true Ganoid. "The existence of the Ganoids as a distinct group has, how- ever, recently been challenged by so distinguished an ichthy- The Ganoids 7 ologist as Giinther, and it may therefore be well to consider how far the group as defined by Muller is a natural one for living forms, and how far recent researches enable us to im- prove upon Muller 's definitions. In his classical memoir the characters of the Ganoids are thus shortly stated: ; ' These fishes are either provided with plate-like angular or rounded cement-covered scales, or they bear osseous plates, or are quite naked. The fins are often, but not always, beset with a double or single row of spinous plates or splints. The caudal fin embraces occasionally in its upper lobe the end of the vertebral column, which may be prolonged to the end of the upper lobe. Their double nasal openings resemble those of Teleostei. The gills are free, and lie in a branchial cavity under an operculum, like those of Teleostei. Many of them have an accessory organ of respiration, in the form of an opercular gill, which is distinct from the pseudobranch, and can be present together with the latter; many also have spiracles like Elas- mobranchii. They have many valves in the stem of the aorta like the latter, also a muscular coat in the stem of the aorta. Their ova are transported from the abdominal cavity by ovi- ducts. Their optic nerves do not cross each other. The in- testine is often provided with a spiral valve, like Elasmobranchii. They have a swimming-bladder with a duct, like many Teleostei. Their pelvic fins are abdominal. '"If we include in a definition only those characters which are invariable, the Ganoids may be shortly defined as being those fish with numerous valves to the stem of the aorta, which is also provided with a muscular coat, with free gills, and an operculum, and with abdominal pelvic fins.' " To these distinctive characters he adds, in an appendix to his paper, the presence of the spiral valve, and the absence of a processus falciformis and a choroid gland. "To the distinctive set of characters given by Muller we may probably add the following: " (i) Oviducts and urinary ducts always unite, and open by a common urogenital aperture behind the anus. " (2) Skull hyostylic. " (3) Segmentation complete in the types so far investigated, 8 The Ganoids though perhaps Amia may be found to resemble the Teleostei in this particular. " (4) A pronephros of the Teleostean type present in the larva. " (5) Thalamencephalon very large and well developed. " (6) The ventricle in the posterior part of the cerebrum is not divided behind into lateral halves, the roof of the undivided part being extremely thin. " (7) Abdominal pores always present. "The great number of characters just given are amply sufficient to differentiate the Ganoids as a group; but, curiously enough, the only characters, amongst the whole series which have been given, which can be regarded as peculiar to the Ganoids are (i) the characters of the brain, and (2) the fact of the ovi- ducts and kidney-ducts uniting together and opening by a common pore to the exterior. "This absence of characters peculiar to the Ganoids is an indication of how widely separated in organization are the different members of this great group. "At the same time, the only group with which existing Ganoids have close affinities is the Teleostei. The points they have in common with the Elasmobranchii are merely such as- are due to the fact that both retain numerous primitive verte- brate characters,* and the gulf which really separates them is very wide. "There is again no indication of any close affinity between the Dipnoans and, at any rate, existing Ganoids. "Like the Ganoids, the Dipnoans are no doubt remnants of a very primitive stock; but in the conversion of the air-bladder into a true lung, the highly specialized character of their limbs, f their peculiar autostylic skulls, the fact of their ventral nasal openings leading directly into the mouth, their multisegmented bars (interspinous bars) directly prolonged from the neural and haemal and supporting the fin-rays of the unpaired dorsal * As instances of this we may cite (i) the spiral valve; (2) the frequent presence of a spiracle; (3) the frequent presence of a communication between the pericardium and the body-cavity; (4) the heterocercal tail. t Vide F. M. Balfour, "On the Development of the Skeleton of the Paired Fins of Elasmobranchs," Proc. Zool. Soc., 1881. The Ganoids 9 and ventral fins, and their well-developed cerebral hemispheres, very unlike those of Ganoids and approaching the Amphibian type, they form a very well-defined group and one very dis- tinctly separated from the Ganoids. " No doubt the Chondrostean Ganoids are nearly as far re- moved from the Teleostei as from the Dipnoans, but the links uniting these Ganoids with the Teleostei have been so fully preserved in the existing fauna of the globe that the two groups almost run into each other. If, in fact, we were anxious to make any radical change in the ordinary classification of fishes, it would be by uniting the Teleostei and Ganoids, or rather constituting the Teleostei into one of the subgroups of the Ganoids, equivalent to the Chondrostei. We do not recom- mend such an arrangement, which in view of the great pre- ponderance of the Teleostei amongst living fishes would be highly inconvenient, but the step from Amia to the Teleostei is certainly not so great as that from the Chondrostei to Amia, and is undoubtedly less than that from the Selachii to the Holo- cephali." Gill on the Ganoids as a Natural Group. — Dr. Gill observes ("Families of Fishes," 1872): "The name Ganoides (or Ganio- lepedoti) was originally framed by Prof. Agassiz as an ordinal term for fishes having the scales (when present) angular and covered with enamel; and in the group so characterized were combined the Ganoids of subsequent authors as well as the Tele- ostean orders Plectognathi, Lophobranchii, and Nematognathi, and (subsequently) the genus Sudis (Arapaima), the last being regarded as a Coelacanth. The group has not been accepted with these limits or characters. " But the researches of Prof. Johannes Miiller on the anatomy and classification of the fishes culminated at length in his cele- brated memoirs on those fishes for which he retained the ordinal name Ganoidei; those memoirs have left an impression on ichthyology perhaps more decided than made by any other contributions to science, and that published in extenso will ever be classical ; numerous as have been the modifications since introduced into the system, no forms except those recognized by Miiller (unless it be Dipnoi) have been interjected since among the Ganoids. io The Ganoids " It has been objected that the Ganoids do not constitute a natural group, and that the characters (i.e., chiasma of optic nerves and multivalvular bulbus arteriosus) alleged by Miiller to be peculiar to the teleostomous forms combined therein are problematical, and only inferentially supposed to be common to the extinct Ganoids so called, and, finally, such objections couched in too strong language have culminated in the assertion that the characters in question are actually shared by other physostome fishes. " No demonstration, however, has been presented as yet that any physostome fishes do really have the optic chiasma and multivalvular bulbus arteriosus, and the statement to the contrary seems to have been the result of a venial misappre- hension of Prof. Kner's statements, or the offspring of impressions left on the memory by his assertions, in forgetfulness of his exact words. " But Prof. Kner, in respect to the anatomical characters referred to, merely objects: (i) that they are problematical, are not confirmable for the extinct types, and were probably not existent in certain forms that have been referred to the Ganoids; (2) the difference in number of the valves of the bulbus arteriosus among recent Ganoids is so great as to show the unreliability of the character ; (3) a spiral valve is developed in the intestine of several osseous fishes (' genera of the so-called intermediate clupeoid groups'), as well as in Ganoids; and (4) the chiasma of the optic nerves in no wise furnishes a posi- tive character for the Ganoids. " It will be noticed that all these objections (save in the case of the intestinal spiral valve) are hypothetical and vague. The failure of the intestinal spiral valve, as a diagnostic char- acter, has long been conceded, and in this case only have the forms that prove the failure been referred to ; in the other cases, where it would be especially desirable to have indicated the actual types falsifying the universality or exclusiveness of the characters, they have not been referred to, and the objec- tions must be met as if they were not known to exist. " (i) The characters in question are, in the sense used, problematical, inasmuch as no examination can be made of the soft parts of extinct forms, but with equal force may it be The Ganoids 1 1 urged that any characters that have not been or cannot be directly confirmed are problematical in the case of all other groups (e.g., mammals), and it can only be replied that the coordina- tion of parts has been so invariably verified that all probabili- ties are in favor of similar coordination in any given case. " (2) There is doubtless considerable difference in the num- ber of valves of the bulbus arteriosus among the various Ganoids, and even among the species of a single family (e.g., Lepido- steidaz), but the character of Ganoids lies not in the number, more or less, but in the greater number and relations (in con- tradistinction to the opposite pair of the Teleosts) in conjunc- tion with the development of a bulbus arteriosus. In no other forms of Teleostomes have similar relations and structures been yet demonstrated. " (3) The failure of the spiral intestinal valve has already been conceded, and no great stress has ever been laid on the character. " (4) The chiasma of the optic nerves is so common to all the known Ganoids, and has not been found in those forms (e.g., Arapaima, Osteoglossum, and Clupeiform types) agreeing with typical physostome Teleosts in the skeleton, heart, etc., but which at the same time simulate most certain Ganoids (e.g., Amid) in form. "Therefore, in view of the evidence hitherto obtained, the arguments against the validity of title, to natural association, of the Ganoids, have to meet the positive evidence of the co- ordinations noted; the value of such characteristics and co- ordinations can only be affected or destroyed by the demon- stration that in all other respects there is (i) very close agreement of certain of the constituents of the subclass with other forms, and (2) inversely proportionate dissimilarity of those forms from any (not all) other of the Ganoids, and consequently evi- dence ubi plurima nitent against the taxonomic value of the characters employed for distinction. "And it is true that there is a greater superficial resemblance between the Hyoganoids (Lepisosteus, Am-ia, etc.) and ordinary physostome Teleosts than between the former and the other orders of Ganoids, but it is equally true that they agree in other respects than in the brain and heart with the more generalized i 2 The Ganoids Ganoids. They all have, for example, (i) the paraglenal ele- ments undivided (not disintegrated into hypercoracoid, hypo- coracoid, and mesocoracoid ; (2) a humerus (simple or divided, that is, differentiated into metapterygium and mesopterygium) ; and (3) those with ossified skeletons agree in the greater number of elements in the lower jaw. Therefore, until these coordi- nates fail, it seems advisable to recognize the Ganoids as con- stituents of a natural series; and especially on account of the superior taxonomic value of modifications of the brain and heart in other classes of vertebrates, for the same reason, and to keep prominently before the mind the characters in question, it appears also advisable to designate the series, until further discovery, as a subclass. " But it is quite possible that among some of the generalized Teleosts at least traces of some of the characters now consid- ered to be peculiar to the Ganoids may be discovered. In anticipation of such a possibility, the author had at first dis- carded the subclass, recognizing the group only as one of the ' superorders ' of the Teleostomes, but reconsideration convinces him of the propriety of classification representing known facts and legitimate inferences rather than too much anticipation. "It is remembered that all characters are liable to fail with increasing knowledge, and the distinctness of groups are but little more than the expressions of our want of knowledge of the intermediate forms; it may in truth be said that ability to segregate a class into well-defined groups is in ratio to our ignorance of all the terms." CHAPTER II THE GANOIDS— Continued LASSIFICATION of Ganoids. — The subdivision of the series of Ganoidei into orders offers great difficulty from the fact of the varying relationships of the mem- bers of the group and the fact that the great majority of the species are known only from broken skeletons preserved in the rocks. It is apparently easy to separate those with cartilaginous skeletons from those with these bones more or less ossified. It is also easy to separate those with bony scales or plates from those having the scales cycloid. But the one type of skeleton grades into the other, and there is a bony basis even to the thinnest of scales found in this group. Among the multitude of names and divisions proposed we may recognize six orders, for which the names Lysopteri, Chondrostei, Selachostomi, Pycnodonti, Lepidostei, and Halecomorphi are not inappropriate. Each of these seems to represent a distinct offshoot from the first primitive group. Order Lysopteri. — In the most primitive order, called Lysop- teri (\vo-6s, loose; Ttrepov, fin) by Cope, Heterocerci by Zittel and Eastman, and the "ascending series of Chondrostei" by Woodward, we find the nearest approach to the Chondropter- ygians. In this order the arches of the vertebrae are more or less ossified, the body is more or less short and deep, covered with bony dermal plates. The opercular apparatus is well developed, with numerous branchiostegals. Infraclavicles are present, and the fins provided with fulcra. Dorsal and anal fins are present, with rays more numerous than their supports; ventral fin with basal supports which are imperfectly ossified; caudal fin mostly heterocercal, the scales mostly rhombic in form. All the members of this group are now extinct. 13 14 The Ganoids The Palaeoniscidse. — The numerous genera of this order are referred to three families, the Palaoniscida, Platysomida, and Dictyopygidcc ; a fourth family, Dorypterida?, of uncertain re- lations, being also tentatively recognized. The family of PalceoniscidcB is the most primitive, ranging from the Devonian to the Lias, and some of them seem to have entered fresh waters in the time of the coal-measures. These fishes have the body elongate and provided with one short dorsal fin. The tail is hetercoercal and the body covered with rhombic plates. Fulcra or rudimentary spine-like scales are developed on the upper edge of the caudal fin in most recent Ganoids, and often the back has a median row of undeveloped scales. A multi- tude of species and genera are recorded A typical form is the genus Palaoniscum* with many species represented in the rocks of various parts of the world. The longest known species is PalcEoniscum frieslebenense from the Permian of Germany and England. Pal&oniscum magnum, sixteen inches long, occurs FIG. 2. — Palceoniscum frieslebenense Blainville. Family Palceoniscidce. (After Zittel.) in the Permian of Germany. From Canobius, the most primi- tive genus, to Coccolepis, the most modern, is a continuous series, the suspensorium of the lower jaw becoming more oblique, the basal bones of the dorsal fewer, the dorsal extending farther forward, and the scales more completely imbricate. Other prominent genera are Amblypterus, Eurylepis, Cheirolepis, Rhadinichthys, Pygopterus, Elonichthys, AZrolepis, Gyrolepis, Myriolepis, Oxygnathus, Centrolepis, and Holurus. The Platysomidae. — The Platysomida are different in form, the body being deep and compressed, often diamond-shaped, * This word is usually written Pal&oniscus, but Blainville, its author (1818), chose the neuter form. The Ganoids i 5 with very long dorsal and anal fins. In other respects they are very similar to the Pal&oniscidce, the osteology being the same. The PalcBonlscidcE were rapacious fishes with sharp teeth, the Platysomidoz less active, and, from the blunter teeth, probably feeding on small animals, as crabs and snails. The rhombic enameled scales are highly specialized and held together as a coat of mail by peg-and-socket joints. The most extreme form is Platysomus, with the body very deep. Platysomus gibbosus and other species occur in the Permian rocks- of Germany. Cheirodus is similar to Platysomus, but without ventral fins. Eurynotus, the most primitive genus, is remarkable for its large pectoral fins. Eurynotus crenatus occurs FIG. 3. — Eurynotus crenatus Agassiz, restored. Carboniferous. Family Platysomidce. (After Traquair.) in the Subcarboniferous of Scotland. Other genera are Meso- lepis, Globulodus, Wardichthys, and Cheirodopsis. Some of the Platysomidce have the interneural spines pro- jecting through the skin before the dorsal fin. This condition is found also in certain bony fishes allied to the Carangidaz. The Dorypteridae. — Dorypterus hoffmani, the type of the sin- gular Palaeozoic family of Dorypteridae, with thoracic or sub- jugular many-rayed ventrals, is Stromateus-like to all appear- ance, with distinct resemblances to certain Scombroid forms, but with a heterocercal tail like a ganoid, imperfectly ossified back-bone, and other very archaic characters. The body is apparently scaleless, unlike the true Platysomidce, in which the i6 The Ganoids scales are highly developed althausi, also from the German This species has lower fins mani, but may be the adult Dorypterus is regarded by cialized offshoot from the many-rayed ventrals and the body and fins suggest affinity Dictyopygidae. — In the Dic- da], the body is gracefully pressed, the heterocercal tail turned upwards, the teeth hooked, and the bony plates this group two genera are taining numerous species. In terns Redfield, not of Agassiz) A second species, Dorypterus copper shales, has been described, than Dorypterus hoff- of the same type. Woodward as a spe- Platysomidcs. The general form of the with the Lamprida. tyopygidcB (Catopteri- elongate, less corn- is short and abruptly are sharp and usually well developed. Of recognized, each con- Redfieldius ( = Catop- the dorsal is inserted FIG. 4. — Dorypterus hoffmani Germar, restored. (After Hancock and Howse.) behind the anal, while in Dictyopyge this is not the case. Red- fieldins gracilis and other species are found in the Triassic of the Connecticut River. Dictyopyge macrura is found in the same region, and Dictyopyge catoptera and other species in Europe. The Ganoids 17 Order Chondrostei. — The order Chondrostei (xovdpos, carti- lage; ocrreov, bone), as accepted by Woodward, is characterized by the persistence of the notochord in greater or less degree, the endoskeleton remaining cartilaginous. In all, the axonosts and baseosts of the median fins are arranged in simple regu- lar series and the rays are more numerous than the sup- porting elements. T-he shoulder-girdle has a pair of infra- clavicular plates. The pelvic fins have well-developed base- osts. , The branchiostegals are few or wanting. In the living forms, and probably in all others, a matter which can never be ascertained, the optic nerves are not decussating, but form an optic chiasma, and the intestine is provided with a spiral valve. In all the species there is one dorsal and one anal fin, separate from the caudal. The teeth are small or wanting, the body naked or covered with bony plates; the caudal fin is usually heterocercal, and on the tail are rhombic plates. To this order, as thus defined, about half of the extinct Ganoids belong, as well as the modern degenerate forms known as stur- geons and perhaps the paddle-fishes, which are apparently derived from fishes with rhombic enameled scales. The species extend from the Upper Carboniferous to the present time, being most numerous in the Triassic. At this point in Woodward's system diverges a descending series, characterized as a whole by imperfect squamation and elongate form, this leading through the synthetic type of Chon- drosteidaz to the modern sturgeon and paddle-fish, which are regarded as degenerate types. The family of Saurorhynchidcs contains pike-like forms, with long jaws, and long conical teeth set wide apart. The tail is not heterocercal, but short -diphycercal ; the bones of the head are covered with enamel, and those of the roof of the skull form a continuous shield. The opercular apparatus is much reduced, and there are no branchiostegals. The fins are all small, without fulcra, and the skin has isolated longitudinal series of bony scutes, but is not covered with continuous scales. The principal genus is Saurorhynchus ( — Belonorhynchus ; the former being the earlier name) from the Triassic. Saurorhynchus acutus from the English Triassic is the best known species. The family of Chondrosteida includes the Triassic precursors 1 8 The Ganoids of the sturgeons. The general form is that of the sturgeon, but the body is scaleless except on the upper caudal lobe, and there are no plates on the median line of the skull. The oper- cle and subopercle are present, the jaws are toothless, and there are a few well-developed caudal rays. The caudal has large fulcra. The single well-known species of this group, Chondrosteus acipenseroides, is found in the Triassic rocks of England and reaches a length of about three feet. It much resembles a modern sturgeon, though differing in several technical respects. Chondrosteus pachyurus is based on the tail of a species of much larger size and Gyrosteus mirabilis, also of the English Triassic, FIG. 5. — Chondrosteus acipenseroides Egerton. Family Chondrosteidoe. (After Woodward.) is known from fragments of fishes which must have been 18 to 20 feet in length. The sturgeons constitute the recent family of Acipenserida, characterized by the prolonged snout and toothless jaws and the presence of four barbels below the snout. In the Acipen- seridcz there are no branchiostegals and a median series of plates is present on the head. The body is armed with five rows of large bony bucklers, — each often with a hooked spine, sharpest in the young. Besides these, rhombic plates are developed on the tail, besides large fulcra. The sturgeons are the youngest of the Ganoids, not occurring before the Lower Eocene, one species, Acipenser toliapicus occurring in the London clay. About thirty living species of sturgeon are known, referred to three genera: Acipenser, found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, Scaphirhynchus, in the Mississippi Valley, and Kessleria (later called Pseudoscaphirhynchus}, in Central Asia alone. Most of the species belong to the genus Acipenser, which abounds in all the rivers and seas in which salmon are found. Some of the smaller species spend their lives in the rivers, ascend- The Ganoids 19 ing smaller streams to spawn. Other sturgeons are marine, ascending fresh waters only for a moderate distance in the spawning season. They range in length from 2^ to 30 feet. All are used as food, although the flesh is rather coarse and beefy. From their large size and abundance they possess great economic value. The eggs -of some species are prepared as caviar. The sturgeons are sluggish, clumsy, bottom-feeding fish. The mouth, underneath the long snout, is very protractile, sucker-like, and without teeth. Before it on the under side of the snout are four long feelers. Ordinarily the sturgeon feeds on mud and snails with other small creatures, but I have seen FIG. 6. — Common Sturgeon, Acipenser sturio Mitchill. Potomac River. large numbers of Eulachon (Thaleichthys) in the stomach of the Columbia River sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus} . This fish and the Eulachon run in the Columbia at the same time, and the sucker-mouth of a large sturgeon will draw into it num- bers of small fishes who may be unsuspiciously engaged in depositing their spawn. In the spawning season in June these clumsy fishes will often leap wholly out of the water in their play. The sturgeons have a rough skin besides five series of bony plates which change much with age and which in very old examples are sometimes lost or absorbed in the skin. The common sturgeon of the Atlantic on both shores is Acipenser sturio. Acipenser huso and numerous other species are found in Russia and Siberia. The great sturgeon of the Columbia is Acipenser transmontanus, and the great sturgeon of Japan Acipenser kikuchii. Smaller species are found farther south, as in the Mediterranean and along the the Carolina coast. Other small species abound in rivers and lakes. Acipenser rubicundus is found throughout the Great Lake region and the Mississippi Valley, never entering the sea. It is four to six feet long, and at Sandusky, Ohio, in one season 14,000 sturgeons were taken 20 The Ganoids in the pound nets. A similar species, Acipenser mikadoi, is abundant and valuable in the streams of northern Japan. FIG 7. — Lake Sturgeon, Acipenser rubicundus Le Sueur. Ecorse, Mich. In the genus Acipenser the snout is sharp and conical, and the shark-like spiracle is still retained. The shovel-nosed sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platyrhynchus} has lost the spiracles, the tail is more slender, its surface wholly bony, and the snout is broad and shaped like a shovel. The single species of Scaphirhynchus abounds in the Mississippi FIG. 8. — Shovel-nosed Sturgeon. Scaphirhynchus platyrhynchus (Rafinesque). Ohio River. Valley, a fish more interesting to the naturalist than to the fisherman. It is the smallest of our sturgeons, often taken in the nets in large numbers. In Scaphyrhynchus the tail is covered by a continuous coat of mail. In Kessleria * fedtschenkoi, rossikowi, and other Asiatic species the tail is not mailed. Order Selachostomi : the Paddle-fishes. - - Another type of Ganoids, allied to the sturgeons, perhaps still further degenerate, is that of the paddle-fishes, called by Cope Selachostomi (re-Eocene history of Lepidosteids, palaeontology gives no answer. They blossom forth suddenly and fully differentiated at the dawn of the Tertiary, without the least clue to their ancestry, unheralded and unaccompanied by any intermediate forms, and they have remained essentially unchanged ever since." Another fossil species is Lepisosteus fimbriatus, from the Upper Eocene of England. Scales and other fragments of garpikes are found in Germany, Belgium, and France, in Eocene and Miocene rocks. On some of these the nominal genera Naisia, Trichiurides, and Pneumatosteus are founded. Clastes, regarded by Eastman as fully identical with Lepisosteus, is said The Ganoids 33 to have the "mandibular ramus without or with a reduced fissure of the dental foramen, and without the groove con- tinuous with it in Lepisosteus. One series of large teeth, with small ones external to them on the dentary bone." Most of the fossil forms belong to Clastes, but the genus shows no differ- ence of importance which will distinguish it from the ordinary garpike. Order Halecomorphi. — To this order belong the allies, living or extinct, of the bowfin (Amid), having for the most part cycloid scales and vertebras approaching those of ordinary FIG. 24. — Lower jaw of Amia calva Linnseus, showing the gular plate. fishes. The resemblance to the Isospondyli, or herring group, is indicated in the name (Halec, a herring; ftopcp??, form). The notochord is persistent, the vertebrae variously ossified. The opercles are always complete. The branchiostegals are broad and there is always a gular plate. The teeth are pointed, usually strong. There is no infraclavicle. Fulcra are present or absent. The supports of the dorsal and anal are equal in num- ber to the rays. Tail heterocercal. Scales thin, mostly cycloid, but bony at base, not jointed with each other. Mandible com- plex, with well-developed splenial rising into a coronoid process, which is completed by a distinct coronoid bone. Pectoral fin with more than five actinosts ; scales ganoid or cycloid. In the living forms the air-bladder is connected with the oesophagus through life; optic chiasma present; intestine with a spiral valve. /This group corresponds to the Amioidei of Liitken "-3 34 The Ganoids and essentially to the Cycloganoidei of Gill. The Protospondyli (nporos, before; Xos, vertebra), but that term originally in- cluded the Characins as well. The Cyprinidae. — The chief family of the Eventognathi and the largest of all the families of fishes is that of Cyprinida, comprising FIG. 122. — Pharyngeal bones and teeth of European Chub, Leuciscus cephalus (Linmcus). (After Seelye.) 200 genera and over 2000 species, found throughout the north tem- perate zone but not extending to the Arctic Circle on the north, nor much beyond the Tropic of Cancer on the south. In this family belong all the fishes known as carp, dace, chub, roach, bleak, minnow, bream, and shiner. The essential character of the family lies in the presence of one, two, or three rows of highly specialized teeth on the lower pharyngeals, the main row con- taining 4, 5, 6, or 7 teeth, the others i to 3. The teeth of the main row differ in form according to the food of the fish. They maybe coarse and blunt, molar-like in those which feed on shells; 164 Series Ostariophysi they may be hooked at tip in those which eat smaller fishes; they may be serrated or not; they may have an excavated "grinding surface," which is most developed in the species which feed on mud and have long intestines. In the Cyprinida:, or carp family, the barbels are small or wanting, the head is naked, the caudal fin forked, the mouth is toothless and without suck- ing lips, and the premaxillaries form its entire margin. With a few exceptions the Cyprinida are small and feeble fishes. They form most of the food of the predatory river fishes, and their great abundance in competition with these is due to their fecundity and their insignificance. They spawn profusely and find everywhere an abundance of food. Often they check the increase of predatory fish by the destruction of their eggs. In many of the genera the breeding color of the males is very brilliant, rendering these little creatures for a time the most beautifully colored of fishes. In spring and early summer the fins, sides, and head in the males are often charged with pig- ment, the prevailing color of which is rosy, though often satin- white, orange, crimson, yellow, greenish, or jet black. Among American genera Chrosomus, Notropis, and Rhinichthys are most highly colored. RJwdens, Rutilus, and Zacco in the Old World are also often very brilliant. In very many species, especially in America, the male in the breeding season is often more or less covered with small, FIG. 123. — Black-nosed Dace, Rhinichthys dulcis Girard. Yellowstone River. grayish tubercles or pearly bodies, outgrowths of the epidermis. These are most numerous on the head and fall off after the breeding season. They are most developed in Campostoma. The Cyprinidaz are little valued as food -fishes. The carp, largely domesticated in small ponds for food, is coarse and Series Ostariophysi 165 tasteless. Most of the others are flavorless and full of small bones. One species, Opsariichthys uncirostris, of Japan is an exception in this regard, being a fish of very delicate flavor. In America 225 species of CyprinidcB are known. One hun- dred of these are now usually held to form the single genus FIG. 124. — White Chub, Notropis hudsonius (Clinton). Kilpatrick Lake, Minn. Notropis. This includes the smaller and weaker species, from two to seven inches in length, characterized by the loss, mostly through degeneration, of special peculiarities of mouth, fins, and teeth. These have no barbels and never more than four teeth FIG. 125. — Silver-jaw Minnow, Ericyrttba buccata Cope. Defiance, Ohio. in the main row. Few, if any, Asiatic species have so small a number, and in most of these the maxillary still retains its rudimentary barbel. But one American genus (Orthodcn) has more than five teeth in the main row and none have more than two rows or more than two teeth in the lower row. By these and other peculiarities it would seem that the American species are at once less primitive and less complex than the Old World 1 66 Series Ostariophysi forms. There is some evidence that the group is derived from Asia through western America, the Pacific Coast forms being much nearer the Old World types than the forms inhabiting the Mississippi Valley. Not many Cyprinidcs are found in Mexico, none in Cuba, South America, Australia, Africa, or the islands to the eastward of Borneo. Many species are very widely distributed, many others extremely local. In the genus Notro- pis, each river basin in the Southern States has its series of different and mostly highly colored species. The presence of Notropis niveus in the Neuse, Notropis pyrrhomelas in the Santee, Notro- pis zonistius in the Chattahoochee, Notropis callistius, tri- chroistius, and stigmaturus in the Alabama, Notropis whipplei in FIG. 126. — Silverfin, Notropis whipplei (Girard). White River, Indiana. Family Cyprinidce. the Mississippi, Notropis galacturus in the Tennessee, and Notro- pis cercostigma in the Sabine forms an instructive series in this regard. These fishes and the darters (Etheo stamina) are, among American fishes, the groups best suited for the study of local problems in distribution. Species of Dace and Shiner. — Noteworthy species in other genera are the following: Largest and best known of the species of Notropis is the familiar shiner or redfin, Notropis cornutus, found in almost every brook throughout the region east of the Missouri River. Campostoma anomalum, the stone-roller, has the very long intestines six times the length of its body, arranged in fifteen coils around the air-bladder. This species feeds on mud and spawns in little brooks, swarming in early spring throughout Series Ostariophysi 167 the Mississippi Valley, and is notable for its nuptial tubercles and the black and orange fins. In the negro-chub, Exoglossum maxillingua of the Pennsyl- FIG. 127. — Stone-roller, Campostoma anomalwn (Rafinesque). Family Cyprinidce. Showing nuptial tubercles and intestines coiled about the air-bladder. vanian district, the rami of the lower -jaw are united for their whole length, looking like a projecting tongue. The fallfish, Semotilus corporalis, is the largest chub of the Eastern rivers, 18 inches long, living in swift, clear rivers. It is a soft fish, and according to Thoreau "it tastes like brown paper salted" when it is cooked. Close to this is the horned dace, Semotilus atromaculatus. and the /jfftt&J /^: ///' » fl^BBBcWrv > /I ' ' r . horny head, Hybopsis kentucki- ensis, both among the most widely distributed of our river fishes. These are all allied to the gudgeon (Gobio gobio}, a common boys' fish of the rivers of Europe, and much FlG- 128.— Head of Day-chub, Exo- , .. , .. glossum maxillingua (Le Sueur). sought by anglers who can get shenandoah River, nothing better. The bream, Abramis, represented by numerous species in Europe, has a deep compressed body and a very long anal fin. It is also well repre- sented in America, the golden shiner, common in Eastern and Southern streams, being Abramis chrysoleucus. The bleak of Europe (Alburnus alburnus) is a "shiner" close to some of our species of Notropis, while the minnow of Europe, Phoxinus phoxinus, resembles our gorgeously colored Chrosomus erythro- i68 Series Ostariophysi gaster. Other European forms are the roach (Rjttilus rutilns), the chub (Leuciscus cephalus), the dace (Leuciscus leuciscus), FIG. 129. — Horned Dace, Semotilus atromaculatus (Mitchill). Aux Plaines River, Ills. Family Cyprinidae. the id (Idus idus), the red-eye (Scardinius erythropthalmus) , and the tench (Tinea tinea}. The tench is the largest of the European species, and its virtues with those of its more or less FIG. 130. — Shiner, Abramis chrysoleucus (Mitchill). Hackensack River, X. J. insignificant allies are set forth in the pages of Izaak Walton. All of these receive more attention from anglers in England than their relatives receive in America. All the American Cyprinida are ranked as "boys' fish," and those who seek the trout or black bass or even the perch or crappie will not notice them. Thoreau speaks of the boy who treasures the yellow Series Ostariophysi 169 perch as a real fish: "So many unquestionable fish he counts, then so many chubs which he counts, then throws away." Chubs of the Pacific Slope. — In the Western waters are numer- ous genera, some of the species reaching a large size. The species FIG. 131. — The Squawfish, Ptychocheilus grandis Agassiz. (Photograph by Cloudsley Rutter.) of squawfish (Ptychocheilus lucius in the Colorado, Ptychocheilus grandis in the Sacramento, and Ptychocheilus oregonensis in the Columbia) reach a length of 4 or 5 feet or even more. These fishes are long and slender, with large toothless mouths and the aspect of a pike. Allied to these are the "hard tails" (Gila elegans and Gila robusta) of the Colorado Basin, strange-looking fishes scarcely eatable, with lean bodies, flat heads, and expanded tails. The split-tail, Pogonichthys macrolepidotus, is found in the Sacramento. In the chisel -mouth, Acroche'ilus alutaceus, of the Columbia the lips have a hard cutting edge. In Meda, very small fishes FIG. 132. — Chub of tbe Great Basin, Leuciscus lineatus (Girard). Heart Lake, Yellowstone Park. Family Cyprinidce. of the Colorado Basin, the dorsal has a compound spine of peculiar structure. Many of the species of Western waters belong to the genus Leuciscus, which includes also many species 170 Series Ostariophysi of Asia and Europe. The common Japanese dace (Leuciscus hakuensis) is often found out in the sea, but, in general, Cyprinida are only found in fresh waters. The genus of barbels (Barbus} contains many large species in Europe and Asia. In these the barbel is better developed than in most other genera, a character which seems to indicate a primitive organization. Barbus mosal of the mountains of India is said to reach a length of more than six feet and to have "scales as large as the palm of the hand." The Carp and Goldfish. — In the American and European Cy- prinida the fin is few-rayed, but in many Asiatic species it is longer, having 15 to 20 rays and is often preceded by a ser- rated spine like that of a catfish. Of the species with long dorsal the one most celebrated is the carp (Cyprinus carpio}. This fish is a native of the rivers of China, where it has been domesticated for centuries. Nearly three hundred years ago it was brought to northern Europe, where it has multiplied in domestication and become naturalized in many streams and ponds. Of late years the cultivation of the carp has attracted much attention in America. It has been generally satisfactory where the nature of the fish is understood and where expecta- tions have not been too high. The carp is a dull and sluggish fish, preferring shaded, tran- quil, and weedy waters with muddy bottoms. Its food con- sists of water insects and other small animals, and vegetable matter, such as the leaves of aquatic plants. They can be fed on much the same things as pigs and chickens, and they bear much the same relation to trout and bass that pigs and chickens do to wild game and game-birds. The carp is a very hardy fish, grows rapidly, and has immense fecundity, 700,000 eggs having been found in the ovaries of a single individual. It reaches sometimes a weight of 30 to 40 pounds. As a food- fish the carp cannot be said to hold a high place. It is tolerated in the absence of better fish. The carp, either native or in domestication, has many ene- mies. In America, catfish, sunfish, and pike prey upon its eggs or its young, as well as water-snakes, turtles, kingfishes, cray- fishes, and many other creatures which live about our ponds and in sluggish streams. In domestication numerous varieties Series Ostariophysi 171 of carp have been formed, the "leather-carp" (Lederkarpfen) being scaleless, others, "mirror-carp" (Spiegelkarpf en) , having rows of large scales only along the lateral line or the bases of the fins. Closely allied to the carp is the goldfish (Carassius auratus}. This is also a common Chinese fish introduced in domestication into Europe and America. The golden-yellow color is found only in domesticated specimens, and is retained by artificial selection. The native goldfish is olivaceous in color, and where the species have become naturalized (as in the Potomac River, where it has escaped from fountains in Washington) it reverts to its natural greenish hue. The same change occurs in the rivers of Japan. The goldfish is valued solely for its bright colors as an ornamental fish. It has no beauty of form nor any interesting habits, and many of our native fishes (Percida, Cyprinida) far excel it in attractiveness as aquarium fishes. Unfortunately they are less hardy. Many varieties and mon- strosities of the goldfish have been produced by domestication. The Catostomidae. — The suckers, or Catostomidcz, are an off- shoot from the Cyprinida, differing chiefly in the structure of the mouth and of the lower pharyngeal bones. The border of the mouth above is formed mesially by the small premaxillaries and laterally by the maxillaries. The teeth of the lower pharyngeals are small and very numerous, arranged in one series like the teeth of a comb. The lips are usually thick and fleshy, and the dorsal fin is more or less elongate (its rays eleven to fifty in number), characters which distinguish the suckers from the American Cyprinid® generally, but not from those of the Old World. About sixty species of suckers are known, all of them found in the rivers of North America except two, which have been re- corded on rather uncertain authority from Siberia and China. Only two or three of the species extend their range south of the Tropic of Cancer into Mexico or Central America, and none FIG. 133. — Lower pha- ryngeal of Placopha- rynx duquesmi (Le Sueur). 172 Series Ostariophysi occur in Cuba nor in any of the neighboring islands. The majority of the genera are restricted to the region east of the Rocky Mountains, although species of Catostomus, Chasmistes, Deltistes, Xyrauchen, and Pantosteus are found in abundance in the Great Basin and the Pacific slope. In size the suckers range from six inches in length to about three feet. As food-fishes they are held in low esteem, the flesh of all being flavorless and excessively full of small bones. Most of them are sluggish fishes; they inhabit all sorts of streams, lakes, and ponds, but even when in mountain brooks they gather in the eddies and places of greatest depth and least current. They feed on insects and small aquatic animals, and also on mud, taking in their food by suction. They are not very tenacious of life. Most of the species swarm in the spring in shallow waters. In the spawning season they migrate up smaller streams than those otherwise inhabited by them. The FIG. 134. — Creekfish or Chub-sucker, Erimyzon sucetta (Lac£p4de). Nipisink Lake, Illinois. Family Catostomidce. large species move from the large rivers into smaller ones; the small brook species go into smaller brooks. In some cases the males in spring develop black or red pigment on the body or fins, and in many cases tubercles similar to those found in the Cyprinidaz appear on the head, body, and anal and caudal fins. The buffalo-fishes and carp-suckers, constituting the genera Ictiobus and Carpiodes, are the largest of the Catostomida, and Series Ostariophysi 173 bear a considerable resemblance to the carp. They have the dorsal fin many rayed and the scales large and coarse. They FIG. 13o. — Buffalo-fish, Ictiobus cyprinella (Cuv. & Val.). Normal, 111. abound in the large rivers and lakes between the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies, one species being found in Central America and a species of a closely related genus (Myxocyprinus asiaticus} FIG. 136. — Carp-sucker, Carpiodes cyprinus (Le Sueur). Havre de Grace. being reported from eastern Asia. They rarely ascend the smaller rivers except for the purpose of spawning. Although so abundant in the Mississippi Valley as to be of importance commerically, they are very inferior as food-fishes, being coarse and bony. The genus Cycleptus contains the black-horse, or Missouri sucker, a peculiar species with a small head, elongate '74 Series Ostariophysi body, and jet-black coloration, which comes up the smaller rivers tributary to the Mississippi and Ohio in large numbers Flo. 137. — Common Sucker, Catostomus commersoni (Le Sueur). Ecorse, Mich. in the spring. Most of the other suckers belong to the genera Catostomus and Moxostoma, the latter with the large-toothed Placopharynx being known, from the red color of the fins, as FIG. 138. — California Sucker, Catostomus occidentalis Agassiz. (Photograph by Cloudsley Rutter.) red-horse, the former as sucker. Some of the species are very widely distributed, two of them (Catostomus commersoni, Eri- myzon sucetta] being found in almost every stream east of the Rocky Mountains and Catostomus Catostomus throughout Canada to the Arctic Sea. The most peculiar of the suckers in appear- ance is the harelip sucker (Quassilabia lacera) of the Western rivers. Very singular in form is the hump-back or razor-back sucker of the Colorado, Xyrauchen cypho. Fossil Cyprinidae. — Fossil Cyprinidce, closely related to exist- ing forms, are found in abundance in fresh-water deposits of the Tertiary, but rarely if ever earlier than the Miocene. Cyprinus Series Ostariophysi '75 prisons occurs in the Miocene of Germany, perhaps showing that Germany was the original home of the so-called "German carp," afterwards actually imported to Germany from China. Some specimens referred to Barbus, Tinea, Rhodeus, Aspius, and Gobio are found in regions now inhabited by these genera, and many species are referred to the great genus Leuc-iscus, Leu- ciscus ceningensis from the Miocene of Germany being perhaps the best known. Several species of Leuciscus or related genera are found in the Rocky Mountain region. Among these is the recently de- scribed Leuciscus turneri. Fossil Catostomidce are very few and chiefly referred to the genus Amyzon, supposed to be allied to Erimyzon, but with a longer dorsal. Amyzon commune and other species are found in the Rocky Mountains, especially in the Miocene of the South Park in Colo- rado and the Eocene of Wyoming. Two or three species of FIG. 139. — Pharyngeal teeth of Oregon Suck- er, Catostomus macro- cheilus. FIG. 140. — Razor-back Sucker, Xyrauchen cypho (Lockington). Green River, Utah. Catostomus, known by their skulls, are found in the Pliocene of Idaho. The Loaches. — The Cobitidcs, or loaches, are small fishes, all less than a foot in length, inhabiting streams and ponds of Europe and Asia. In structure they are not very different from minnows, but they are rather eel-like in form, and the numerous 176 Series Ostariophysi long barbels about the mouth strongly suggest affinity with the catfishes. The scales are small, the pharyngeal teeth few, and the air-bladder, as in most small catfishes, enclosed in a capsule. The loaches are all bottom fishes of dark colors, tenacious of life, feeding on insects and worms. The species often bury themselves in mud and sand. They lie quiet on the bottom and move very quickly when disturbed much after the manner of darters and gobies. Species of Cobitis and Mis- gurnus are widely distributed from England to Japan. Nema- chilus barbatulus is the commonest European species. Cobitis .tcenia is found, almost unchanged, from England to the streams •jof Japan. Remains of fossil loaches, mostly indistinguishable from 'Cobitis, occur in the Miocene and more recent rocks. From ancestors of loaches or other degraded Cyprinidce we may trace the descent of the catfishes. The Romaic pterida are small loaches in the mountain streams of the East Indies. They have no air-bladder and the number of pharyngeal teeth (10 to 16) is greater than in the loaches, carp, or minnows. CHAPTER IX THE NEMATOGNATHI, OR CATFISHES HE Nematognathi. — The Nematognathi (vrjpa, thread; yvaBos, jaw), known collectively as catfishes, are recognized at once by the fact that the rudimentary and usually toothless maxillary is developed as the bony base of a long barbel or feeler. Usually other feelers are found around the head, suggesting the "smellers" of a cat. The body is never scaly, being either naked and smooth or else more or less completely mailed with bony plates which often resemble superficially those of a sturgeon. Other distinctive characters are found in the skeleton, notably the absence of the subopercle, but the peculiar development of the maxillary and its barbel with the absence of scales is always distinctive. The symplectic is usually absent, and in some the air-bladder is reduced to a rudiment inclosed in a bony capsule. In almost all cases a stout spine exists in the front of the dorsal fin and in the front of each pectoral fin. This spine, made of modified or coalescent soft rays, is often a strong weapon with serrated edges and capable of inflicting a severe wound. When the fish is alarmed, it sets this spine by a rotary motion in its socket joint. It can then be depressed only by breaking it. By a rotary motion upward and toward the body the spine is again lowered. The wounds made by this spine are often painful, but this fact is due not to a specific poison but to the irregular cut and to the slime of the spine. In two genera, Noturus and Schilbeodes, a poison-gland exists at the base of the pectoral spine, and the wound gives a sharp pain like the sting of a hornet and almost exactly like the sting of a scorpion-fish. Most of the Nematognathi possess a fleshy or adipose fin behind the dorsal, exactly as in the salmon. In IT — 12 177 178 The Nematognathi, or Catfishes a few cases the adipose fin develops an anterior spine and occasionally supporting rays. All the Nematognathi are carnivorous bottom feeders, de- vouring any prey they can swallow. Only a few enter the sea, and they occur in the greatest abundance in the Amazon region. Upward of 1200 species, arranged in 150 genera, are recorded. They vary greatly in size, from two inches to six feet in length. All are regarded as food-fishes, but the species in the sea have very tough and flavorless flesh. Some of the others are extremely delicate, with finely flavored flesh and a grateful absence of small bones. Families of Nematognathi. — According to Dr. Eigenmann's scheme of classification,* the most primitive family of Nema- tognathi is that of Diplomystidcz, characterized by the pres- ence of a well-developed maxillary, as in other soft-rayed fishes. The single species, Diplomystes pafrillosus, is found in the waters of Chile. Similar to the Diplomystida in all other respects is the great central family of Silurida, by far the most numerous and im- portant of all the divisions of Nematognathi. The Siluridae. — This group has the skin naked or imperfectly mailed, the barbels on the head well developed, the dorsal short, inserted forward, the adipose fin without spine, and the lower pharyngeals separate. All the marine catfishes and most of the fresh-water species belong to this group, and its members, some 700 species, abound in all parts of the world where cat- fishes are known — "a bloodthirsty and bullying race of rangers inhabiting the river bottoms with ever a lance at rest and ready to do battle with their nearest neighbor." The Sea Catfish. — In the tropical seas are numerous species of catfishes belonging to Tachysurus, Arius, Galeichthys, Felich- thys, and other related genera. These are sleek, silvery fishes covered with smooth skin, the head usually with a coat of mail, pierced by a central fontanelle. Some of them reach a con- siderable size, swarming in sandy bays. None are valued as food, being always tough and coarsely flavored. Sea birds, as the pelican, which devour these catfishes are often destroyed by * A Revision of the South American Nematognathi, 1890, p. 7 The Nematognathi, or Catfishes 179 the sudden erection of the pectoral spines. None of these are found in Europe or in Japan. Of the very many American species the gaff -topsail catfish (Felichthys felis), noted for its FIG. 141.— Gaff-topsail Cat, Felichthys felis (L.). Wood's Hole. very high spines, extends farthest north and is one of the very largest species. This genus has two barbels at the chin. Most others have four. The commonest sea catfish of the Carolina coast is Galeichthys milberti. In Tachysurus the teeth FIG. 142.— Sea Catfish, Galeichthys milberti (Cuv. & Val.). Pensacola. on the palate are rounded, in most of the others they are in villiform bands. In most or all of the sea catfish the eggs, as large as small peas, are taken into the mouth of the male and there cared for until hatched. The Channel Cats. — In all the rivers of North America east of the Rocky Mountains are found catfishes in great variety. The channel cats, Ictalurus, known most readily by the forked tails, are the largest in size and most valued as food. The tech- i8o The Nematognathi, or Catfishes nical character of the genus is the backward continuation of the supraoccipital, forming a bony bridge to the base of the dorsal. The great blue cat, Ictalurus furcatus, abounds throughout the large rivers of the Southern States and reaches a weight of 150 pounds or more. It is an excellent food and its firm flesh is read- ily cut into steaks. In the Great Lakes and northward is a very similar species, also of large size, which has been called Ictalurus FIG. 143. — Channel Catfish, Ictalurus punctatus (Rafinesque). Illinois River. Family SiluridcB. lacustris. Another similar species is the willow cat, Ictalurus anguilla. The white channel-cat, Ictalurus punctatus, reaches a much smaller size and abounds on the ripples in clear swift streams of the Southwest, such as the Cumberland, the Alabama, and the Gasconade. It is a very delicate food-fish, with tender white flesh of excellent flavor. Horned Pout. — The genus Ameiurus includes the smaller brown catfish, horned pout, or bullhead. The body is more plump and the caudal fin is usually but not always rounded. The many species are widely diffused, abounding in brooks, lakes, and ponds. Ameiurus nebulosus is the best-known species, ranging from New England to Texas, known in the East as horned pout. It has been successfully introduced into the Sacramento, where it abounds, as well as its congener, Ameiurus catus (see Fig. 229, Vol. I), the white bullhead, brought with it from the Potomac. The latter species has a broader head and concave or notched tail. All the species are good food-fishes. All are extremely tenacious of life, and all are alike valued by the urchin, for they will bite vigorously at any sort of bait. All must be handled with care, for the sharp pectoral spines make an ugly cut, a species of The Nematognathi, or Catfishes 181 wound from which few boys' hands in the catfish region are often free. In the caves about Conestoga River in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a partly blind catfish, evidently derived from . 53 a QQ 3 8 £ o w local species outside the cave. It has been named Gronias nigrilabris. A few species are found in Mexico, one of them, Ictalurus 182 The Nematognathi, or Catfishes meridional-is, as far south as Rio Usamacinta on the boundary of Guatemala. Besides these, a large channel-cat of peculiar dentition, known as Istlarius balsanus, abounds in the basin of Rio Balsas. In Mexico all catfishes are known as Bagre, this species as Bagre de Rio. The genus Leptops includes the great yellow catfish, or goujon, known at once by the projecting lower jaw. It is a mottled olive and yellow fish of repulsive exterior, and it reaches a very great size. It is, however, a good food-fish. The Mad-toms. — The genera Noturus and Schilbeodes are composed of diminutive catfishes, having the pectoral spine armed at base, with a poison sac which renders its sting ey- FIG. 145. — Mad-torn, Schilbeodes furiosus Jordan & Meek. Showing the poisoned pectoral spine. Family Siluridce. Neuse River. tremely painful though not dangerous. The numerous species of this genus, known as "mad-toms" and "stone cats," live among weeds in brooks and sluggish streams. Most of them rarely exceed three inches in length, and their varied colors make them attractive in the aquarium. The Old World Catfishes. — In the catfishes of the Old World and their relatives, the adipose fin is rudimentary or wanting. The chief species found in Europe is the huge sheatfish, or wels, Silurus glanis. This, next to the sturgeon, is the largest river fish in Europe, weighing 300 to 400 pounds. It is not found in Eng- land, France, or Italy, but abounds in the Danube. It is a lazy fish, hiding in the mud and thus escaping from nets. It is very voracious, and many stories are told of the contents of its stomach. A small child swallowed whole is recorded from Thorn, and there are still more remarkable stories, but not The Nematognathi, or Catfishes 183 properly vouched for. The sheatfish is brown in color, naked, sleek, and much like an American Ameiurus save that its tail is much longer and more eel-like. Another large catfish, known to the ancients, but only recently rediscovered by Agassiz and Garman, is Parasilurus aristotelis of the rivers of Greece. In China and Japan is the very similar Namazu, or Japanese catfish, Parasilurus asotus, often found in ponds and used as food. Numerous smaller related catfishes, Porous (Bagrus), Pseudo- bagrus, and related genera swarm in the brooks and ponds of the Orient. In the genus Torpedo (Malapterurus) the dorsal fin is wanting. Torpedo electricus, the electric catfish of the Nile, is a species of much interest to anatomists. The shock is like that of a Leyden jar. The structures concerned are noticed on p. 186, FIG. 146. — Electric Catfish, Torpedo electricus (Gmelin). Congo River. (After Boulenger.) Vol. I. The generic name Torpedo was applied to the electric catfish before its use for the electric ray. In South America a multitude of genera and species cluster around the genus Pimelodus. Some of them have the snout very long and spatula te. Most of them possess a very long adipose fin. The species are generally small in size and with smooth skin like the North American catfishes. Still other species in great numbers are grouped around the genus Doras. In this group the snout projects, bearing the small mouth at its end, and the lateral line is armed behind with spinous shields. All but one of the genera belong to the Amazon district, Syno- dontis being found in Africa. Concerning Doras, Dr. Giinther observes: "These fishes have excited attention by their habit of traveling during the dry season from a piece of water about to dry up in quest of a pond of greater capacity. These journeys are occasionally of such a length that the fish spends whole nights on the way, 1 84 The Nematognathi, or Catfishes and the bands of scaly travelers are sometimes so large that the Indians who happen to meet them fill many baskets of the prey thus placed in their hands. The Indians suppose that the fish carry a supply of water with them, but they have no special organs and can only do so by closing the gill-openings or by retaining a little water between the plates of their bodies, as Hancock supposes. The same naturalist adds that they make regular nests, in which they cover up their eggs with care and defend them, male and female uniting in this parental duty until the eggs are hatched. The nest is constructed, at the beginning of the rainy season, of leaves and is sometimes placed in a hole scooped out of the beach." The Sisoridae. — The Sisorida are small catfishes found in swift mountain streams of northern India. In some of the genera (Pseudecheneis) in swift streams a sucking-disk formed of longitudinal plates of skin is formed on the breast. This enables these fishes to resist the force of the water. In one genus, Exostoma, plates of skin about the mouth serve the same purpose. The Bunocephalida are South American catfishes with the dorsal fin undeveloped and the top of the head rough. In Platystacus (Aspredo), the eggs are carried on the belly of the female, which is provided with spongy tentacles to which the eggs are attached. After the breeding season the ventral sur- face becomes again smooth. The Plotosidae. — The Ploiosida are naked catfishes, largely marine, found along the coasts of Asia. In these fishes the second dorsal is very long. Plotosus anguillaris, the sea catfish of Japan, is a small species striped with yellow and armed with sharp pectoral spines which render it a very disagreeable object to the fishermen. In sandy bays like that of Nagasaki it is very abundant. Allied to this is the small Asiatic family of Chacida. The Chlariidae. — The Chlariida are eel-like, with a soft skele- ton and a peculiar accessory gill. These abound in the swamps and muddy streams of India, where some species reach a length of six feet. One species, Chlarias magur, has been brought by the Chinese to Hawaii, where it flourishes in the same The Nematognathi, or Catfishes 185 waters as Ameiurus nebulosus, brought from the Potomac and by Chinese carried from San Francisco. The Hypophthalmidae and Pygidiidae. — The Hypophthalmidcu have the minute air-bladder inclosed in a long bony capsule. The eyes are placed very low and the skin is smooth. The statement that this family lacks the auditory apparatus is not correct. The few species belong to northern South America. Allied to this group is the family Pygidiidcs with a differ- ently formed bony capsule and no adipose fin. The numerous species are all South American, mostly of mountain streams of high altitude. Some are very small. Certain species are said to flee for protection into the gill-cavity of larger cat- FIG. 147. — An African Catfish, Chlarias brenceps Boulenger. Congo River. Family Chlariidce. (After Boulenger.) fishes. Some are reported to enter the urethra of bathers, causing severe injuries. The resemblance of certain species to the loaches, or Cobitida, is very striking. This similarity is due to the results of similar environment and necessarily parallel habits. The Argidoz have the capsule of the air-bladder formed in a still different fashion. The few species are very small, inhabitants of the streams of the high Andes. The Loricariidse. — In the family of Loricariidaz the sides and back are armed with rough bony plates. The small air-bladder is still in a bony capsule, and the mouth is small with thick fringed lips. The numerous species are all small fishes of the South American waters, bearing a strong external resemblance to Agonida, but wholly different in anatomy. The Callichthyidae. — The Callidiikyidcc are also small fishes armed with a bony interlocking coat of mail. They are closely allied to the Pygidiida. The body is more robust than in the CallichikyidcB and the coat of mail is differently formed. The species swarm in the rivers of northern South America, where i86 The Nematognathi, or Catfishes 1 with the mailed Loricariidcs they form a conspicuous part of the fish fauna. Fossil Catfishes. — Fossil catfishes are very few in number. Silurida, allied to Chlarias, Bagarius, Hetero- branchus, and other fresh-water forms of India, are found in the late Tertiary rocks of Sumatra, and catfish spines exist in the Tertiary rocks of the United States. Verte- bras in the Canadian Oligocene have been referred by Cope to species of Ameiurus (A. cancellatus and A. maconnelli}. Rhineastes peltatus and six other species, perhaps allied to Pimelodus, have been described by Cope from Eocene of Wyoming and Colorado. Bucklandium diluvii is found in the Eocene London clays, and several species apparently marine, referred to the neighbor- hood of T achy sums or Arms, are found in Eocene rocks of England. There is no evidence that the group of catfishes has any great antiquity, or that its members were ever so numerous and varied as at the present time. The group is evidently derived from scaly ances- tors, and its peculiarities are due to specialization of certain parts and degeneration of others. There is not the slightest reason for regarding the catfishes as direct descendants of the sturgeon or other Ganoid type. They should rather be looked upon as a degener- ate and highly modified offshoot pIO from the primitive Characins. ner, a mailed Catfish from Rio Meta, Venezuela. Family Loricariidce. (After Steindachner.) The Nematognathi, or Catfishes 187 Order Gymnonoti. — At the end of the series of Ostariophysans we may place the Gymnonoti (yv^vo?, bare; rcoros, back). This group contains about thirty species of fishes from the rivers of South America and Central America. All are eel-like in form, though the skeleton with the shoulder-girdle suspended from the cranium is quite unlike that of a true eel. There is no dorsal fin. The vent is at the throat and the anal is ex- cessively long. The gill-opening is small as in the eel, and as in most elongate fishes, the ventral fins are undeveloped. The body is naked or covered with small scales. Two families are recognized, differing widely in appearance. The Electro eel)- This group he regards as intermediate between the eel-like catfishes (Chlartas) and the true eels. It is naked and eel-shaped, with a short head and projecting lower jaw like that of the true eel. The single species, Electrophorus electricus, inhabits the rivers of Brazil, reaching a length of six feet, and is the most powerful of all electric fishes. Its electric organs on the tail are derived from modified muscular tissue. They are described on -p. 170, Vol. I. The Gymnotidcz are much smaller in size, with compressed scaly bodies and the mouth at the end of a long snout. The numerous species are all fishes without electric organs. Eigen- mannia humboldti of the Panama region is a characteristic species. No fossil Gymnonoti are recorded. CHAPTER X THE SCYPHOPHORI, HAPLOMI, AND XENOMI 'RDER Scyphophori. — The Scyphophori ((TKV, perhaps coextensive with Esox. Fossil Umbrida are, however, not yet recognized. The Killifishes. — Most of the recent Haplomi belong to the family of Pceciliidcz (killifishes, or Cyprinodonts) . In this group the small mouth is extremely protractile, its margin formed by the premaxillaries alone much as in the spiny- rayed fishes. The teeth are small and of various forms accord- ing to the food. In most of the herbivorous forms they are incisor-like, serrate, and loosely inserted in the lips. In the species that eat insects or worms they are more firmly fixed. The head is scaly, the stomach without caeca, and the intes- tines are long in the plant-eating species and short in the others. There are nearly 200 species, very abundant from New England and California southward to Argentina, and in Asia and Africa also. In regions where rice is produced, they swarm in the rice swamps and ditches. Some of them enter the sea, but none of them go far from shore. Some are brilliantly colored, and in many species the males are quite unlike the females, being smaller and more showy. The largest species (Fundulus, Anableps} rarely reach the length of a foot, while Heterandria formosa, a diminutive inhabitant of the Florida rivers, scarcely reaches an inch. Some species are oviparous, but in most of the herbivorous forms, and some of the others, the eggs are hatched within the body, and the anal in the male is modified into a long sword-shaped intromittent organ, placed farther forward than the anal in the female. The young when born closely resemble the parent. Most of the insectivorous species swim at the surface, moving slowly with the eyes partly out of water. This habit in the genus Anableps (four-eyed fish, or Cuatro ojos) is associated with an The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi 195 extraordinary structure of the eye. This organ is prominent and is divided by a horizontal partition into two parts, the upper, less convex, adopted for sight in the air, the lower in the water. The few species of Anableps are found in tropical America. The species of some genera swim near the bottom, but always in very shallow waters. All are very tenacious of life, and none have any commercial value although the flesh is good. FIG. 152a. — Four-eyed Fish, Anableps dovii Gill. Tehuantepec, Mexico. The unique structure of the eye of this curious fish has been carefully studied by Mr. M. C. Marsh, pathologist of the U. S. Fish Commission, who furnishes the following notes published by Evermann & Goldsborough : "The eye is crossed by a bar, like the diameter of a circle, and parallel with the length of the body. This bar is darker than the other external portions of the eyeball and has its edges darker still. Dividing the external aspect of the eye equally, it has its lower edge on the same level as the back of the fish, which is flat and straight from snout to dorsal, or nearly the whole length of the fish ; so that when the body of the fish is just submerged the level of the water reaches to this bar, and the lower half of the eye is in water, the upper half in the air. Upon dissecting the eyeball from the orbit, it appears nearly round. A membranous sheath covers the external part and invests most of the ball. It may be peeled off, when the dark bar on the external portion of the eye is seen to be upon this, membrane, which may correspond to the conjunctiva. The back portion of the eyeball being cut off, one lens is found. The lining of the ball consists, in front, of one black layer, evidently choroid. Behind there is a retinal layer. The choroid layer turns up anteriorly, making a free edge comparable to an iris. The free edge is chiefly evident in the lower part of the eye. A large pupil is left, but is divided by two flaps, continuations of the choroid coat, projecting from either side and overlapping. 1 96 The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi There are properly then two pupils, an upper and lower, sepa- rated by a band consisting of the two flaps, which may probably, by moving upward and downward, increase or diminish the size of either pupil; an upward motion of the flaps increasing the lower pupil at the expense of the other, and vice versa." This division of the pupil into two parts permits the fish, when swimming at the surface of the water, as is its usual cus- tom, to see in the air with the upper portion and in the water with the lower. It is thus able to see not only such insects as are upon the surface of the water or flying in the air above, but also any that may be swimming beneath the surface. According to Mr. E. W. Nelson, " the individuals of this species swim always at the surface and in little schools arranged in platoons or abreast. They always swim headed upstream against the current, and feed upon floating matter which the current brings them. A platoon may be seen in regular for- FIG. 153. — Round Minnow, Cyprinodon rariegotus Lac6pede. St. George Island, Maryland. mation breasting the current, either making slight headway upstream or merely maintaining their station, and on the qui vive for any suitable food the current may bring. Now and then one may be seen to dart forward, seize a 'floating food particle, and then resume its place in the platoon. And thus The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi 197 they may be observed feeding for long periods. They are almost invariably found in running water well out in the stream, or at least where the current is strongest and where floating matter is most abundant, for it is upon floating matter that they seem chiefly to depend. They are not known to jump out of the water to catch insects flying in the air or resting upon vegetation above the water surface, nor do they seem to feed to any extent upon all small crustaceans or other portions of the plankton beneath the surface. "When alarmed — and they are wary and very easily fright- ened— they escape by skipping or jumping over the water, FIG. 154. — Everglade Minnow, Jordanella floridce Goode & Bean. of Florida. Everglades 2 or 3 feet at a skip. They rise entirely out of the water, and at a considerable angle, the head pointing upward. In descending the tail strikes the water first and apparently by a sculling motion new impetus is acquired for another leap. This skipping may continue until the school is widely scattered. When a school has become scattered, and after the cause of their fright has disappeared, the individuals soon rejoin each other. First two will join each other and one by one the others will join them until the whole school is together again. Rarely do they at- tempt to dive or get beneath the surface; when they do they have great difficulty in keeping under and soon come to the surface again." 198 The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi Of the many genera of Paciliidcz, top-minnows, and killi- fishes we may mention the following: Cyprinodon is made FIG. loo. — Mayfish, Fundulus majalis (L.) (male). Wood's Hole. up of chubby little fishes of eastern America with tricuspid, incisor teeth, oviparous and omnivorous. Very similar to FIG. 156. — Mayfish, Fvndulus majalis (female). Wood's Hole. these but smaller are the species of Lebias in southern Europe. Jordanella floridce of the Florida everglades is similar, but with FIG. 157. — Top-minnow, Zygonectes notatus (Rafinesque). Eureka Springs, Ark. the dorsal fin long and its first ray enlarged and spine-like. It strongly resembles a young sunfish. Most of the larger forms The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi 199 belong to Fundulus, a genus widely distributed from Maine to Guatemala and north to Kansas and southern California. Fundulus majalis, the Mayfish of the Atlantic Coast, is the largest of the genus. Fundulus heteroclitus, the killifish, the most abundant. Fundulus diaphanus inhabits sea and lake FIG. 158. — Death Valley Fish, Empetrichthys merriami Gilbert. Amargosa Desert, Cal. Family Poeciliidce. (After Gilbert.) indiscriminately. Fundulus stellifer of the Alabama is beauti- fully colored, as is Fundulus zebrinus of the Rio Grande. The genus Zygonectes includes dwarf species similar to Fundulus, and Adinia includes those with short, deep body. Goodea atripinnis with tricuspid teeth lives in warm springs in Mexico, Fie. 159. — Sword-tail Minnow, male, Xiphophorus helleri Heckel. The anal fin modified as an intromittent organ. Vera Cruz. and several species of Goodea, Gambusia, Pcecilia, and other genera inhabit hot springs of Mexico, Central America, and Africa. The genus Gambusia, the top-minnows, includes nu- merous species with dwarf males having the anal modified. Gambusia affinis abounds in all kinds of sluggish water in The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi 201 the southern lowlands, gutters and even sewers included. It brings forth its brood in early spring. Viviparous and her- bivorous with modified anal are the species of Pcecilia, abundant throughout Mexico and southward to Brazil; Mollienesia very similar, with a banner-like dorsal fin, showily marked, occurs from Louisiana southward, and Xiphophorus, with a sword- shaped lobe on the caudal, abounds in Mexico ; Characodon and Goodea (see Fig. 53, Vol. I) in Mexico have notched teeth, and finally, Heterandria contains some of the least of fishes, the handsomely colored males barely half an inch long. In Lake Titicaca in the high Andes is a peculiar genus (Ores- tias) without ventral fins. Still more peculiar is Empetrichthys merriami of the desert springs of the hot and rainless Death Valley in California, similar to Orestias, but with enormously enlarged pharyngeals and pharyngeal teeth, an adaptation to some unknown purpose. Fossil Cyprinodonts are not rare from the Miocene in southern Europe. The numerous species are allied to Lebias and Cyprinodon, and are referred to Prolebias and Pachylebias. None are American, although two American extinct genera, Gephyrura and Proballostomus, are probably allied to this group. Amblyopsidae. — The cave-fishes, Amblyopsidce, are the most remarkable of the haplomous fishes. In this family the vent is FIG. 161. — Dismal Swamp Fish, Chologaster cornutus Agassiz. Supposed ancestor of Typhlichihys. Virginia. placed at the throat. The form is that of the Pceciliida, but the mouth is larger and not protractile. The species are vivip- arous, the young being born at about the length of a quarter of an inch. In the primitive genus Chologaster, the fish of the Dismal Swamp, the eyes are small but normally developed. Cholo- gaster cornutus abounds in the black waters of the Dismal Swamp 2O2 The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi of Virginia, thence southward through swamps and rice- fields to Okefinokee Swamp in northern Florida. It is a small fish, less than two inches long, striped with black, and with the habit of a top-minnow. Other species of Chologaster, possessing eyes and color, but provided also with tactile papillae, are found in cave springs in Tennessee and southern Illinois. From Chologaster is directly descended the small blindfish Typhlichthys subterraneus of the caves of the Subcarboniferous limestone rocks of southern Indiana and southward to northern Alabama. As in Chologaster, the ventral fins are wanting. The eyes, present in the young, become defective and useless in the adult, when they are almost hidden by other tissues. The different parts of the eye are all more or less incomplete, being without function. The structure of the eye has been described in much detail in several papers by Dr. Carl H. Eigen- FIG. 162. — Blind Cave-fish, Typhlichthys subterraneus Girard. Mammoth ('MVP, Kentucky. mann. As to the cause of the loss of eyesight two chief theories exist — the Lamarckian theory of the inheritance in the species of the results of disuse in the individual and the Weissmannian doctrine that the loss of sight is a result of panmixia or cessation of selection. This may be extended to cover reversal of selection, as in the depths of the great caves the fish without eyes would be at some slight advantage. Dr. Eigenmann inclines to the Lamarckian doctrine, but the evidence brought forward fails to convince the present writer that results of individual use or disuse ever become hered- itary or that they are ever incorporated in the characters of a species. In the caves of southern Missouri is an inde- pendent case of similar degradation. Troglichthys roscc, the blindfish of this region, has the eye in a different phase of degeneration. It is thought to be separately descended from The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi 203 some other species of Chologaster. Of this species Mr. Garman and Mr. Eigenmann have given detailed accounts from some- what different points of view. Concerning the habits of the blindfish (Troglichthys roses], Mr. Garman quotes the following from notes of Miss Ruth Hoppin, of Jasper County, Missouri: "For about two weeks I have been watching a fish taken from a well. I gave him considerable water, changed once a day, and kept him in an uninhabitated place subject to as few changes of temperature as possible. He seems perfectly healthy and as lively as when first taken from the well. If not capable of long fasts, he must live on small organisms my eye cannot discern. He is hardly ever still, but moves about the sides of the vessel constantly, down and up, as if needing the air. He never swims through FIG. 163. — Blindfish of the Mammoth Cave, Amblyopsis spelceus (De Kay). Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. the body of the water away from the sides unless disturbed. Passing the finger over the sides of the vessel under water I find it slippery. I am careful not to disturb this slimy coating when the water is changed. . . . Numerous tests convince me that it is through the sense of touch, and not through hear- ing, that the fish is disturbed; I may scream or strike metal bodies together over him as near as possible, yet he seems to take no notice whatever. If I strike the vessel so that the water is set in motion, he darts away from that side through the mass of water, instead of around in his usual way. If I stir the water or touch the fish, no matter how lightly, his actions are the same." The more famous blindfish of the Mammoth Cave, Ambly- opsis spel&us, reaches a length of five inches. It possesses ventral fins. From this fact we may infer its descent from 204 The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi some extinct genus which, unlike Chologaster , retains these fins. The translucent body, as in the other blindfishes, is covered with very delicate tactile papillae, which form a very delicate organ of touch. The anomalous position of the vent in Amblyopsida occurs again in an equally singular fish, Aphredoderus sayanus, which is found in the same waters throughout the same region in which Chologaster occurs. It would seem as if these lowland fishes of the southern swamps were remains of a once much more extensive fauna. No fossil allies of Chologaster are known. Kneriidse, etc. — The members of the order of Haplomi, recorded above, differ widely among themselves in various details of osteology. There are other families, probably belonging here, which are still more aberrant. Among these are the Kneriida, and perhaps the entire series of forms called Iniomi, most of which possess the osteological traits of the Haplomi. The family of Kneriid® includes a few very small fishes of the rivers of Africa. The Galaxiidae. — The Galaxiidce are trout-like fishes of the southern rivers, where they take the place of the trout of the northern zones. The species lack the adipose fins and have the dorsal inserted well backward. According to Boulenger these fishes, having no mesocoraoid, should be placed among the Haplomi. Yet their relation to the Haplochitonidce is very close and both families may really belong to the Isospondyli. Galaxias truttaceus is the kokopu, or "trout," of New Zealand. Galaxias ocellatus is the yarra trout of Australia. Several other species are found in southern Australia, Tasmania, Patagonia, and the Falkland Islands, and even in South Africa. This very wide distribution in the rivers remote from each other has given rise to the suggestion of a former land connection between Australia and Patagonia. Other similar facts have led some geologists to believe in the existence of a former great con- tinent called Antarctica, now submerged except that part which constitutes the present unknown land of the Antarctic. As intimated on p. 253, Vol. I, this distribution of Galaxias with similar anomalies in other groups could not if unsupported by geological evidence be held to prove the former extension The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi 205 of the Antarctic continent. Dr. Boulenger * has recently shown that Galaxias lives freely in salt water, a fact sufficient * Dr. Boulenger (Nature, Nov. 27, 1902) has the following note on Galaxias: " Most text-books and papers discussing geographical distribution have made much of the range of a genus of small fishes, somewhat resembling trout, the Galaxias, commonly described as true fresh- water forms, which have long been known from the extreme south of South America, New Zealand, Tasmania, and southern Australia. The discovery, within the last few years, of a species of the same genus in fresh water near Cape Town, whence it had previously been described as a loach by F. de Castelnau, has added to the interest, and has been adduced as a further argument in support of the former existence of an Antarctic continent. In alluding to this discovery when discussing the distribution of African fresh-water fishes in the introduction to my work 'Les Poissons du Bassin du Congo,' in 1901, I observed that, contrary to the prevailing notion, all species of Galaxias are not confined to fresh water, and that the fact of some living both in the sea and in rivers suffices to explain the curious distribution of the genus; pointing out that in all probability these fishes were formerly more widely distributed in the seas south of the tropic of Capricorn, and that certain species, adapting themselves entirely to fresh-water life, have become localized at the distant points where they are now known to exist. Although as recently as October last the distinguished American ichthyologist D. S. Jordan wrote (Science, xiv, p. 20): 'We know nothing of the power of Galaxias to survive submergence in salt water, if carried in a marine current* ; it is an established fact, ascertained some years ago by F. E. Clarke in New Zealand and by R. Vallentin in the Falkland Islands, that Galaxias attenuatus lives also in the sea. In New Zealand it periodically descends to the sea, where it spawns, from January to March, and returns from March to May. In accordance with these marine habits, this species has a much wider range than any of the others, being known from Chile, Pata- gonia, Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, New Zealand, Tasmania, and southern Australia. " I now wish to draw attention to a communication made by Captain F. W. Hutton in the last number of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute (xxxiv, p. 198), 'On a Marine Galaxias from the Auckland Islands.' This fish, named Galaxias bollansi, was taken out of the mouth of a specimen of Merganser australis during the collection excursion to the southern islands of New Zealand made in January, 1901, by His Excellency the Earl of Ran- furly. "It is hoped that by giving greater publicity to these discoveries the family GalaxiidcB will no longer be included among those strictly confined to fresh waters, and that students of the geographical distribution of animals will be furnished with a clue to a problem that has so often been discussed on insufficient data. As observed by Jordan (/. c.), 'all anomalies in distribu- tion cease to be such when the facts necessary to understand them are at hand.' " Of the fresh-water species of Galaxias, eight are known from New Zealand and the neighboring islands, seven from New South Wales, three or four from south Australia, one from west Australia, two from Tasmania, seven from South America, from Chile southwards, and one from the Cape of Good Hope." 206 The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi to account for its wide distribution in the rivers of the southern hemisphere. Neochanna is an ally of Galaxias living in burrows in the clay or mud like a crayfish, often at a distance from water. As in various other mud-living types, the ventral fins are obsolete. Order Xenomi. — We must place near the Haplomi the singular group of Xenomi (Zeros, strange; GOJJO?, shoulder), regarded by Dr. Gill as a distinct order. Externally these fish much resemble the mud-minnows, differing mainly in the very broad pectorals. But the skeleton is thin and papery, the two coracoids forming a single cartilaginous plate imperfectly divided. The pectorals are attached directly to this without the inter- vention of actinosts, but in the distal third, according to Dr. Charles H. Gilbert, the coracoid plate begins to break up FIG. 164. — Alaska Blackfish, Dallia pectoralis (Bean). St. Michaels, Alaska. into a fringe of narrow cartilaginous strips. These about equal the very large number (33 to 36) of pectoral rays, the basal part of each ray being slightly forked to receive the tip of the cartilaginous strip. " In the deep-sea eels of the order Heteromi there is a some- what similar condition of the coracoid elements inasmuch as the hypercoracoid and hypocoracoid though present are merely membranous elements surrounded by cartilage and the acti- nosts are greatly reduced. It seems probable that we are dealing in the two cases with independent degeneration of the shoulder-girdle and that the two groups (Xenomi and Heteromi) are not really related. ' ' (Gilbert. ) Of the single family Dalliidcc, one species is known, the Alaska blackfish, Dallia pectoralis. The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenomi 207 This animal, formed like a mud-minnow, reaches a length of eight inches and swarms in the bogs and sphagnum swamps of northwestern Alaska and westward through Siberia. It is found in countless numbers according to its discoverer, Mr. L. M. Turner, "wherever there is water enough to wet the skin of a fish," and wherever it occurs it forms the chief food of the natives. Its vitality is most extraordinary. Blackfishes will remain frozen in baskets for weeks and when thawed out are as lively as ever. Turner gives an account of a frozen individual swallowed by a dog which escaped in safety after being thawed out by the heat of the dog's stomach. CHAPTER XI ACANTHOPTERYGII ; SYNENTOGNATHI RDER Acanthopterygii, the Spiny-rayed Fishes. — The most of the remaining bony fishes constitute a natural group for which the name Acanthopterygii (a^artfa, spine; mepvB,, nrepov, fin or wing) may be used. This name is often written Actinopteri, a form equally correct and more euphonious and convenient. These fishes are characterized, with numerous exceptions, by the presence of fin spines, by the connection of the ventral fins with the shoulder-girdle, by the presence in general of more than one spine in the an- terior part of dorsal and anal fins, and as a rule of one spine and five rays in the ventral fins, and by the absence in the adult of a duct to the air-bladder. Minor characters are these: the pectoral fins are inserted high on the shoulder-girdle, the scales are often ctenoid, and the edge of the upper jaw is formed by the premaxillary alone, the maxillary being always toothless. But it is impossible to define or limit the group by any single character or group of characters. It is connected with the Malacopterygii through the Haplomi on the one hand by transitional groups of genera which may lack any one of these characters. On the other hand, in the extreme forms, each of these distinctive characters may be lost through degenera- tion. Thus fin spines, ctenoid scales, and the homocercal tail are lost in the codfishes, the connection of ventrals with shoulder- girdle fails in the Percesoces, etc., and the development of the air-duct is subject to all sorts of variations. In one family even the adipose fin remains through all the changes and modifications the species have undergone. The various transitional forms between the Haplomi and the perch-like fishes have been from time to time regarded as 208 Acanthopterygii ; Synentognathi 209 separate orders. Some of them are more related to the perch, others rather to ancestors of salmon or pike, while still others are degenerate offshoots, far enough from either. On the whole, all these forms, medium, extreme and tran- sitional, may well be placed in one order, which would include the primitive flying-fishes and mullets, the degraded globefishes, and the specialized flounders. As for the most part these are spiny-rayed fishes, Cuvier's name Acanthopterygii, or Acanthopteri, will serve us as well as any. The Physoclysti of Muller, the Thoracices of older authors, and the Ctenoidei of Agassiz in- clude substantially the same series of forms. The order Teleo- cephali of Gill (reXeos, perfect; KeQahrj, head) has been lately so restricted as to cover nearly the same ground. In Gill's most recent catalogue of families, the order Teleocephali in- cludes the Haplomi and rejects the Hemibranchii, Lophobranchii, Plectognathi, and Pediculati, all of these being groups charac- terized by sharply defined but comparatively recent characters not of the highest importance. As originally arranged, the order Teleocephali included the soft-rayed fishes as well. From it the Ostariophysi were first detached, and still later the Isospondyli were regarded by Dr. Gill as a separate order. We may first take up serially as suborders the principal groups which serve to effect the transition from soft-rayed to spiny-rayed fishes. Suborder Synentognathi. — Among the transitional forms be- tween the soft-rayed and the spiny-rayed fishes, one of the most important groups is that known as Synentognathi (o-vr, to- gether; ev, within; yvatios, jaw). These have, in brief, the fins and shoulder-girdle of Haplomi, the ventral fins abdominal, the dorsal and anal without spines. At the same time, as in the spiny-rayed fishes, the air-bladder is without duct and the pectoral fins are inserted high on the side of the body. With these traits are two others which characterize the group as a suborder. The lower pharyngeal bones are solidly united into one bone and the lateral line forms a raised ridge along the lower side of the body. These forms are structurally allied to the pikes (Haplomi), on the one hand, and to the mullets (Percesoces), on the other, and this relationship accords with their general appearance. In this group as in all the remain- ii — 14 210 Acanthopterygii ; Synentognathi ing families of fishes, there is no mesocoracoid, and in very nearly all of these families the duct to the air-bladder disappears at an early stage of development. The Garfishes: Belonidae. — There are two principal groups or families among the Synentognathi, the Belonida, with strong jaws and teeth, and the Exoccetida, in which these structures .are feeble. Much more important characters appear in the anatomy. In the Belonida the third upper pharyngeal is small, with few teeth, and the maxillary is firmly soldered to the premaxillary. The vertebrae are provided with zygapophyses. The species of Belonidcz are known as garfishes, or needle- fishes. They resemble the garpike in form, but have nothing •else in common. The body is long and slender, covered with small scales. Sharp, unequal teeth fill the long jaws and the FIG. 165. — Needle-fish, Tyloxurus acus (Lace'pede). New York. dorsal is opposite the anal, on the hinder part of the body. These fishes are green in color, even the bones being often bright green, while the scales on the sides have a silvery luster. The species are excellent as food, the green color being associated with nothing deleterious. All are very voracious and some of the larger species, 5 or 6 feet long, may be dangerous even to man. Fishermen have been wounded or killed by the thrust •of the sharp snout of a fish springing into the air. The garfishes swim near the surface of the water and often move with great swiftness, frequently leaping from the water. The genus Belone is characterized by the presence of gill-rakers. Belone belone is a small garfish common in southern Europe. Belone platura occurs in Polynesia. The American species (Tylosurus) lack gill-rakers. Tylosurus marinus, the common garfish of Acanthopterygii ; Synentognathi 2 1 1 the eastern United States, often ascends the rivers. Tylosurus rapliidoma, Tylosurus fodiator, Tylosurus acus, and other species are very robust, with short strong jaws. Athlennes hians is a very large fish with the body strongly compressed, almost ribbon-like. It is found in the West Indies and across the Isthmus as far as Hawaii. Many other species, mostly belong- ing to Tylosurus, abound in the warm seas of all regions. Tylosurus ferox is the long torn of the Australian markets. Potamorrhaphis with the dorsal fin low is found in Brazilian rivers. A few fossil species are referred to Belone, Belone flava from the lower Eocene being the earliest. The Flying-fishes: Exocoetidae. — The family of Exoccetida? in- cludes the flying-fishes and several related forms more or less intermediate between these and the garfishes. In these fishes the teeth are small and nearly equal and the maxillary is sepa- rate from the premaxillary. The third upper pharyngeal is much enlarged and there are no zygapophyses to the vertebrae. The skippers (Scombresox) have slender bodies, pointed jaws, and, like the mackerel, a number of detached finlets behind dorsal and anal, although in other respects they show no affinity to the mackerel. The common skipper, or saury (Scombresox saurus), is found on both shores of the North Atlantic swimming in large schools at the surface of the water, frequently leaping for a little distance like the flying-fish. They are pursued by the mackerel-like fishes, as the tunny or bonito, and sometimes by porpoises. According to Mr. Couch, the skippers, when pursued, "mount to the surface in multitudes and crowd on each other as they press forward. When still more closely pursued, they spring to the height of several feet, leap over each other in singular confusion, and again sink beneath. Still further urged, they mount again and rush along the surface, by repeated starts, for more than one hundred feet, without once dipping beneath or scarcely seeming to touch the water. At last the pursuer springs after them, usually across their course, and again they all disappear together. Amidst such multi- tudes— for more than twenty thousand have been judged to be out of the water together — some must fall a prey to the enemy ; but so many hunting in company, it must be long before the pursuers abandon. From inspection we could scarcely judge 212 Acanthopterygii ; Synentognathi the fish to be capable of such flights, for the fins, though numerous, are small, and the pectoral far from large, though the angle of their articulation is well adapted to raise the fish by the direction of their motions to the surface." A similar species, Cololabis saira, with the snout very much shorter than in the Atlantic skipper, is the Samma of the fisher- men of Japan. The hard-head (Chriodorus atherinoides] has no beak at all and its tricuspid incisor teeth are fitted to feed on plants. In this genus, as in the flying-fishes, there are no finlets. The hard- head is an excellent food-fish abundant about the Florida Keys but not yet seen elsewhere. Another group between the gars and the flying-fishes is that of the halfbeaks, or balaos, Hemirhamphus, etc. These are also FIG. 166. — Saury, Scombresox saurus (L.). Wood's Hole. vegetable feeders, but with much smaller teeth, and the lower jaw with a spear-like prolongation to which a bright-red mem- brane is usually attached. Of the halfbeaks there are several genera, all of the species swimming near the surface in schools and sometimes very swiftly. Some of them leap into the air and sail for a short distance like flying-fishes, with which group the halfbeaks are connected by easy gradations. The com- FIG. 167. — Halfbeak, Hyporhamphus unifasciatus (Ranzani). Chesapeake Bay. monest species along our Atlantic coast is Hyporhamphus uni- fasciatus; a larger species, Hemirhamphus brasiliensis, abounds about the Florida Keys. Euleptorhamphus longirostris, a ribbon- shaped elongate fish, with long jaw and long pectorals, is taken in the open sea, both in the Altantic and Pacific, being common in Hawaii. The Asiatic genus Zenarchopterus is viviparous, Acanthopterygii ; Synentognathi 2 1 3 having the anal fin much modified in the male, forming an intromittent organ, as in the Paciliida. One species occurs in the river mouths in Samoa. The flying-fishes have both jaws short, and at least the FIG. lf>8. — Sharp-nosed Flying-fish, Fodiator acutus (Val.). Panama pectoral fins much enlarged, so that the fish may sail in the air for a longer or shorter distance. The smaller species have usually shorter fins and approach more nearly to the halfbeaks. Fodiator acutus, with sharp jaws, and Hemiexoccetus, with a short beak on the lower jaw, are especially intermediate. The flight of the flying-fishes is described in detail on p. 157, Vol. I. The Catalina flying-fish, Cypselurus calif ornicus , of the shore of southern California is perhaps the largest of the known species, reaching a length of 18 inches. To this genus, Cypselurus, having a long dorsal and short anal, and with ventrals en- larged as well as pectorals, belong all the species strongest in flight, Cypselurus heterurus and furcatus of the Atlantic, Cypse- lurus simus of Hawaii and Cypselurus agoo in Japan. The very young of most of these species have a long barbel at the chin which is lost with age. In the genus Exonautes the base of anal fin is long, as long as that of the dorsal. The species of this group, also strong in flight, are widely distributed. Most of the European flying- fishes, as Exonautes rondeleti, Exonautes speculiger, and Exo- nautes vinciguerra, belong to this group, while those of Cypselurus mostly inhabit the Pacific. The large Australian species Exo- nautes unicolor, Fig. 226, Vol. I, belongs to this group. In the restricted genus Exoc&tus the ventral fins are short and not used in flight. Exoccetus volitans (evolans) is a small flying-fish, 214 Acanthopterygii ; Synentognathi with short ventral fins not used for flight. It is perhaps the most widely distributed of all, ranging through almost all warm seas. Parexoccetus brachypterus, still smaller, and with shorter, grasshopper-like wings, is also very widely distributed. An ex- cellent account of the flying-fishes of the world has been given by Dr. C. F. Liitken (1876), the University of Copenhagen, FIG. 169. — Catalina Flying-fish, Cypselurus californicus (Cooper). Santa Barbara. which institution has received a remarkably fine series from trading-ships returning to that port. Later accounts have been given by Jordan and Meek, and by Jordan and Ever- mann. Very few fossil Exoccetida are found. Species of Scombresox and Hemirhamphus are found in the Tertiary, the earliest being Hemirhamphus edwardsi from the Eocene of Monte Bolca. No fossil flying-fishes are known, and the genera, Exoccetus, Exo- nautes, and Cypselurus are doubtless all of very recent origin. CHAPTER XII PERCESOCES AND RHEGNOPTERI UBORDER Percesoces. — In the line of direct ascending transition from the Haplomi and Synentognathi, the pike and flying-fish, towards the typical perch-like forms, we find a number of families, perch-like in essential regards but having the ventral fins abdominal. These types, represented by the mullet, the silverside, and the barracuda, have been segregated by Cope as an order called Percesoces (Perca, perch; Esox, pike), a name which correctly describes their real affinities. In these typical forms, mullet, silverside, and barracuda, the affinities are plain, but in other transitional forms, as the threadfin and the stickleback, the relationships are less clear. Cope adds to the series of Percesoces the Ophiocephalida, which Gill leaves with the Anabantida among the spiny-rayed forms. Boulenger adds also the sand- lances (AmmodytidcB) and the threadfins (Polynemida;} , while Woodward places here the Crossognathida. In the present work we define the Percesoces so as to include all spiny-rayed fishes in which the ventral fins are naturally abdominal, except- ing those having a reduced number of gill-bones, or of actinosts, or other peculiarities of the shoulder-girdle. The Ammodytidce have no real affinities with the Percesoces. The Crossognathida and other families with abdominal ventrals and the dorsal spines wholly obsolete may belong with the Haplomi. Boulenger places the Chiasmodontida, the Stromateidcc , and the Tetragonurid6ivas, waning; fipayx05' giU)' characterized by the reduction of the gill-arches. These forms are really nearly related, but their affinities with the Percesoces are so close that it may not be necessary to form a distinct order of the combined group. Boulenger unites the Hemibranchii with Lampris to form a group, Catosteomi, characterized by the development of inf raclavicles ; but we cannot see that Lampris bears any affinity to the stickle- backs, or that the presence of infraclavicle has any high significance, nor is it the supposed infraclavicle of Lampris homologous with that of the Hemibranchii. The dorsal fin in the Hemibranchii has more or less developed spines; spines are also present in the ventral fins. The lower pharyngeals are separated; there is no air-duct. The mouth is small and the bones of the snout are often much produced. The preopercle and symplectic are distinct. The group is doubtless derived from some transitional spiny-rayed type allied to the Percesoces. The Lophobranchs, another supposed order, represent simply a still further phase of degradation of gills and ventral fins. Dr. Gill separates these two groups as distinct orders and places them, as aberrant offshoots, near the end of his series of bony fishes. We prefer to leave them with the other transi- tional forms, not regarding their traits of divergence as of any great importance in the systematic arrangement of families. The Sticklebacks : Gasterosteidae. - - The sticklebacks (Gaster- osieidcz) are small, scaleless fishes, closely related to the Fistulariida so far as anatomy is concerned, but with very different appearance and habits. The body often mailed, the dorsal is preceded by free spines and the ventrals are each reduced to a sharp spine with a rudimentary ray. The jaws are short, bristling with sharp teeth, and these little creatures are among the most active, voracious, and persistent of all fishes. They attack the fins of larger fishes, biting off pieces, Phthinobranchii 229 and at the same time they devour the eggs of all species acces- sible to them. In almost all fresh and brackish waters of the north temperate zone these little fishes abound. "It is scarcely to be conceived," Dr. Gunther observes, "what damage these little fishes do, and how greatly detrimental they are to the increase of all the fishes among which they live, for it is with the utmost industry, sagacity, and greediness that they seek out and destroy all the young fry that come their way." The sticklebacks inhabit brackish and fresh waters of the northern hemisphere, species essentially alike being found throughout northern Europe, Asia, and America. The same species is subject to great variation. The degree of develop- ment of spines and bony plates is greatest in individuals living in the sea and least in clear streams of the interior. Each of the mailed species has its series of half -mailed or even naked varieties found in the fresh waters. This is true in Europe, New England, California, and Japan. The farther the indi- viduals are from the sea, the less perfect is their armature. Thus, Gasterosteus cataphractus, which in the sea has a full armature of bony plates on the side, about 30 in number, will have in river mouths from 6 to 20 plates and in strictly fresh water only 2 or 3 or even none at all. The sticklebacks have been noted for their nest-building habits. The male performs this operation, and he is provided with a special gland for secretion of the necessary cement. Dr. Gill quotes from Dr. John A. Ryder an account of this process. The secretory gland is a "large vesicle filled with a clear secretion which coagulates into threads upon contact with water. It appears to open directly in front of the vent. As soon as it is ruptured, it loses its transparency, and what- ever secretion escapes becomes whitish after being in contact with water for a short time. This has the same tough, elastic qualities as when spun by the animal itself, and is also composed of numerous fibers, as when a portion is taken that has been recently spun upon the nest. Thus provided, when the nuptial season has arrived the male stickleback prepares to build his nest, wherein his mate may deposit her eggs. How this nest is built, and the subsequent proceedings of the stickle- backs, have been told us in a graphic manner by Mr. John K. 23° Phthinobranchii Lord, from observations on Gasterosteus cataphractus on Van- couver Island, although the source of his secretion was mis- understood : "The site is generally amongst the stems of aquatic plants, where the water always flows but not too swiftly. He first begins by carrying small bits of green material which he nips off the stalks and tugs from out the bottom and sides of the bank; these he attaches by some glutinous material, that he clearly has the power of secreting, to the different stems destined as pillars for his building. During this operation he swims against the work already done, splashes about, and seems to test its durability and strength; rubs himself against the tiny kind of platform, scrapes the slimy mucus from his sides to mix with and act as mortar for his vegetable bricks. Then he thrusts his nose into the sand at the bottom, and, bringing a mouthful, scatters it over the foundation; this is repeated until enough has been thrown on to weight the slender fabric down and give it substance and stability. Then more twists, turns, and splashings to test the firm adherence of all the materials that are intended to constitute the foundation of the house that has yet to be erected on it. The nest, or nursery, when completed is a hollow, somewhat rounded, barrel-shaped structure worked together much in the same way as the plat- form fastened to the water-plants; the whole firmly glued together by the viscous secretion scraped from off the body. The inside is made as smooth as possible by a kind of plastering system; the little architect continually goes in, then, turning round and round, works the mucus from his body on to the inner sides of the nest, where it hardens like tough varnish. There are two apertures, smooth and symmetrical as the hole leading into a wren's nest, and not unlike it. "All this laborious work is done entirely by the male fish, and when completed he goes a-wooing. Watch him as he swims towards a group of the fair sex enjoying themselves amidst the water-plants arrayed in his best and brightest livery, all smiles and amiability; steadily and in the most approved style of stickleback love-making this young and wealthy bachelor approaches the object of his affections, most likely tells her all about his house and its comforts, hints Phthinobranchii 231 delicately at his readiness and ability to defend her children against every enemy, vows unfailing fidelity, and in lover fashion promises as much in a few minutes as would take a lifetime to fulfill. Of course she listens to his suit; personal beauty, indomitable courage, backed by the substantial recommendations of a house ready built and fitted for immediate occupation, are gifts not to be lightly regarded. "Throwing herself on her side the captive lady shows her appreciation, and by sundry queer contortions declares herself his true and devoted spouse. Then the twain return to the nest, into which the female at once betakes herself and therein deposits her eggs, emerging, when the operation is completed, by the opposite hole. During the time she is in the nest (about six minutes) the male swims round and round, butts and rubs his nose against it, and altogether appears to be in a state of defiant excitement. On the female leaving, he immediately enters, deposits the milt on the eggs, taking his departure through the back door. So far his conduct is strictly pure; but I am afraid morality in stickleback society is of rather a lax order. No sooner has this lady, his first love, taken her depart- ure, than he at once seeks another, introduces her as he did the first, and so on, wife after wife, until the nest is filled with eggs, layer upon layer, milt being carefully deposited betwixt each stratum of ova. As it is necessary there should be two holes, by which ingress and egress can be readily accomplished, so it is equally essential in another point of view. To fertilize fish-eggs, running water is the first necessity; and, as the holes are invariably placed in the direction of the current, a steady stream of water is thus directed over them." To the genus Gasterosteus the largest species belong, those having three dorsal spines, and the body typically fully covered with bony plates. Gasterosteus aculeatus inhabits both shores of the Atlantic and the scarcely different Gasterosteus cataphractus swarms in the inlets from southern California to Alaska, Siberia, and northern Japan. Half -naked forms have been called by various names and one entirely naked in streams of southern California is named Gasterosteus williamsoni. Its traits are, however, clearly related to its life in fresh waters. In Pygosteus pungitius, a type of almost equally wide range, 232 Phthinobranchii there are nine or ten dorsal spines and the body is more slender. All kinds of waters of the north on both continents may yield FIG. 182. — Three-spined Stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus L. Wood's Hole, Mass. this species or its allies and variations, mailed or naked. The naked, Apeltes quadracus, is found in the sea only, along the New England coast. Eucalia inconstans is the stickleback of the clear brook from New York to Indiana and Minnesota. The male is jet FIG. 183. — Four-spined Stickleback, Apeltes quadracus Mitchill. Wood's Hole, Mass black in spring with the sheen of burnished copper and he is intensely active in his work of protecting the eggs of his own species and destroying the eggs and fry of others. Spinachia spinachia is a large sea stickleback of Europe with many dorsal spines. No fossil Gasterosteida are recorded, and the family, while the least specialized in most regards, is certainly not the most primitive of the suborder. The Aulorhynchidae. — Closely related to the sticklebacks is the small family of Aulorhynchida, with four soft rays in the Phthinobranchii 233 ventral fins. Aulorhynchus, like Spinachia, has many dorsal spines and an elongate snout approaching that of a trumpet- fish. Aulorhynchus flavidus lives on the coast of California and Aulichthys japonicus in Japan. The extinct family of Pro- tosyngnathida is near Aulorhynchus, with the snout tubular, the ribs free, not anchylosed as in Aulorhynchus, and with the first vertebras fused, forming one large one as in Aulostomus. Proto- syngnathus sumatrensis occurs in Sumatra. Protaulopsis bolcensis of the Eocene of Italy has the ventral fins farther back, and is probably more primitive than the sticklebacks. Cornet-fishes: Fistulariidae. — Closely related to the stickle- backs so far as structure is concerned is a family of very dif- ferent habit, the cornet-fishes, or cornetas (Fistulariidce) . In these fishes the body is very long and slender, like that of a garfish. The snout is produced into a very long tube, which bears the short jaws at the end. The teeth are very small. There are no scales, but bony plates are sunk in the skin. The ventrals are abdominal, each with a spine and four rays. The four anterior vertebras are very much elongate. There are no spines in the dorsal and the backbone extends through the forked caudal, ending in a long filament. The cornet-fishes are dull red or dull green in color. They reach a length of two or three feet, and the four or five known species are widely distributed through the warm seas, where they swim in shallow water near the surface. Fistularia tabaccaria, the tobacco- pipe fish, is common in the West Indies, Fistularia petimba, F. serrata, and others in the Pacific. A fossil cornet-fish of very small size, Fistularia longirostris , is known from the Eocene of Monte Bolca, near Verona. Fistularia kcenigi is recorded from the Oligocene of Glarus. The Trumpet-fishes: Aulostomidae. — The Aulostomidcs, or trum- pet-fishes are in structure entirely similar to the Fistu- lariidce, but the body is band-shaped, compressed, and scaly, the long snout bearing the feeble jaws at the end. There are numerous dorsal spines and no filament on the tail. Aulostomus chinensis (maculatus] is common in the West Indies, Aulostomus valentini abounds in Polynesia and Asia, where it is a food-fish of moderate importance. A species of Aulosto- mus (bolcensis} is found in the Italian Eocene. Allied to it is 234 Phthinobranchii the extinct family Urosphenida, scaleless, but otherwise similar. Urosphen dubia occurs in the Eocene at Monte Bolca. Urosphen FIG. 184. — Trumpet-fish, Aulostomus chinensis (L.) Virginia. is perhaps the most primitive genus of the whole suborder of Hemibranchii. The Snipefishes: Macrorhamphosidae. — Very remarkable fishes are the snipefishes, or Macrorhamphosidce. In these forms FIG. 185. — Japanese Snipefish, Macrorhamphosus sagifue Jordan & Starks. Misaki, Japan. the snout is still tubular, with the short jaws at the end. The body is short and deep, partly covered with bony plates. The dorsal has a very long serrated spine, besides several shorter ones, and the ventral fins have one spine and five rays. The snipefish, or woodcock-fish, Macrorhamphosus scolopax, is rather common on the coasts of Europe, and a very similar species (M. sagifue} occurs in Japan. The Rhamphosida, re- presented by Rhamphosus, an extinct genus with the ventrals further forward, are found in the Eocene rocks of Monte Bolca. Rhamphosus vastrum has minute scales, short dorsal, and the snout greatly attenuate. The Shrimp-fishes: Centriscidae. — One of the most extraor- dinary types of fishes is the small family of Centriscida, found in the East Indies. The back is covered by a transparent bony cuirass which extends far beyond the short tail, on which the two dorsal fins are crowded. Anteriorly this cuirass is Phthinobranchii composed of plates which are soldered to the ribs, toothless mouth is at the end of a long snout. 235 The small FIG. 186. — Shrimp-fish, JZoliscus strigatus (Gimther). Riu Kiu Islands, Japan. These little fishes with the transparent carapace look very much like shrimps. Centriscus scutatus (Amphisile] with the terminal spine fixed is found in the East Indies, and ALoliscus strigatus with the terminal spine movable is found in southern Japan and southwards. A fossil species, ALoliscus heinrichi, is found in the Oligocene FIG. 187. — sEoliscus heinrichi Heckel. Eocene of Carpathia. Family Centriscidce. (After Heckel.) of various parts of Europe, and Centriscus longirostris occurs in the Eocene of Monte Bolca. In the Centriscidaz and Macrorhamphosidce the expansions of the hypocoracoid called infraclavicles are not developed. The Lophobranchs. — The suborder Lophobranchii (Ao0o?, tuft; fipayxos, gill) is certainly an offshoot from the Hemi- branchii and belongs likewise among the forms transitional from soft to spiny-rayed fishes. At the same time it is a degenerate group, and in its modifications it turns directly away from the general line of specialization. The chief characters are found in the reduction of the gills to small lobate tufts attached to rudimentary gill-arches. The so-called infraclavicles are present, as in most of the Hemi- branchii. Bony plates united to form rings take the place of scales. The long tubular snout bears the short toothless jaws at the end. The preopercle is absent, and the ventrals are seven- rayed or wanting. The species known as pipefishes and sea-horses are all very small and none have any economic value. They are 236 Phthinobranchii numerous in all warm seas, mostly living in shallow bays among seaweed and eel-grass. The muscular system is little developed and all the species have the curious habit of carrying the eggs until hatched in a pouch of skin under the belly or tail; this structure is usually found in the male. The Solenostomidae. — The Solenostomida of the East Indies are the most primitive of these fishes. They have the body rather short and provided with spinous dorsal, and ventral fins. The pretty species are occasionally swept northward to Japan in the Black Current. Solenostomus cyanopterus is a characteristic species. Solenorhynchus elegans, now extinct (with the trunk more elongate), preceded Solenostomus in the Eocene of Monte Bolca. The Pipefishes: Syngnathidae. — The Syngnathidce are very long and slender fishes, with neither spinous dorsal, nor ventral fins, the body covered by bony rings. Of the pipefish, Syngnathus, there are very many species on all northern coasts. Syngnathus acus is common in Europe, Syngnathus fuscum along the New England coast, Syngnathus californiense in California, and Syngnathus schlegeli in Japan. Numerous other species of Syngnathus and other genera are found further south in the same regions. Corythroichthys is characteristic of coral reefs and Microphis of the streams of the islands of Polynesia. In general, the more northerly species have the greater number of vertebrae and of bony rings. Tiphle tiphle is a large pipefish of the Mediterranean. This species was preceded by Tiphle albyi (Siphonostoma} in the Miocene of Sicily. Other pipefishes, referred to as Syngnathus and Cala- mostoma, are found as fossils in Tertiary rocks. The Sea-horses: Hippocampus. — Both fossil and recent forms constitute a direct line of connection from the pipe-fishes to the sea-horses. In the latter the head has the form of the head of a horse. It is bent at right angles to the body like the head of a knight at chess. There is no caudal fin, and the tail in typical species is coiled and can hardly be straightened out. Calamostoma of the Eocene, Gasterotokeus of Polynesia, and Acentronura of Japan are forms which connect the true sea- horses with the pipefish. Gasterotokeus has the long head and slender body of the pipefish, with the prehensile finless Phthinobranchii 237 238 Phthinobranchii tail of a sea-horse. Most of the living species of the sea-horse belong to the genus Hippocampus. These little creatures have the egg-sac of the male under the abdomen. They range from two inches to a foot in length and some of the many species may be found in abundance in every warm sea. Some cling by the tails to floating seaweed and are swept to great distances ; others cling to eel- grass and live very near the shore. The commonest European species is Hippocampus hippocampus. Most abundant on our Atlantic coast is Hippocampus hudsonius. Hippo- campus coronatus is most common in Japan. The largest species are Hippocampus ingens of Lower Cali- fornia and Hippocampus kelloggi in Japan. Many species, especially of the smaller ones, have the spines of the bony plates of the body ending in fleshy flaps. These are sometimes so enlarged as to simu- late leaves of seaweed, thus serving for the efficient protection of the species. These flaps are developed to an extreme degree in Phyl- lopteryx eques, a pipefish of the East Indies. No fossil sea-horses are known. The following account of the breeding-habits of our smallest sea-horse (Hippocampus zostera?) was prepared by the writer for a book of children's stories: " He was a little bit of a sea-horse and his name was Hippo- campus. He was not more than an inch long, and he had a red stripe on the fin on his back, and his head was made of bone and it had a shape just like a horse's head, but he ran out to a point at his tail, and his head and his tail were all covered with bone. He lived in the Grand Lagoon at Pensacola in Florida, PIG. 189. — Sea-horse, Hippocampus hudsonius Dekay. Virginia. Phthinobranchii 239 where the water is shallow and warm and there are lots of seaweeds. So he wound his tail around a stem of seaweed and hung with his head down, waiting to see what would happen next, and then he saw another little sea-horse hanging on another seaweed. And the other sea-horse put out a lot of little eggs, and the little eggs all lay on the bottom of the sea at the foot of the seaweed. So Hippocampus crawled down from the seaweed where he was and gathered up all those little eggs, and down on the under side of his tail where the skin is soft he made a long slit for a pocket, and then he stuffed all the eggs into this pocket and fastened it together and stuck it with some slime. So he had all the other sea-horse's eggs in his own pocket. "Then he went up on the seawrack again and twisted his tail around it, and hung there with his head down to see what would happen next. The sun shone down on him, and by and by all the little eggs began to hatch out, and each one of the eggs was a little sea-pony, shaped just like a sea-horse. And when he hung there with his head down he could feel all the little sea-ponies squirming inside his pocket, and by and by they squirmed so much that they pushed the pocket open, and then every one crawled away from him, and he couldn't get them back, and so he went along with them and watched to see that nothing should hurt them. And by and by they hung themselves all up on the seaweeds, and they are hanging there yet. And so he crawled back to his own piece of seaweed and twisted his tail around it, and waited to see what would happen next. And what happened next was just the same thing over again." Suborder Hypostomides, the Sea-moths: Pegasidae. — The small suborder of Hypostomides (VTTO, below; aro^a, mouth) con- sists of the family of Pegasida. These "sea -moths" are fantastic little fishes, probably allied to the sticklebacks, but wholly unique in form. The slender body is covered with bony plates, the gill-covers are reduced to a single plate. The small mouth underneath a long snout has no teeth. The pre- opercle and the symplectic are both wanting. The ventrals are abdominal, formed of two rays, and the very large pec- toral fin is placed horizontally like a great wing. 240 Phthinobranchii The species, few in number, known as sea-moths and sea- dragons, rarely exceed four inches in length. They are found FIG 190. — Sea-moth, Zahses umitengu Jordan & Snyder. Misaki, Japan. (View from below.) in the East Indies and drift with the currents northward to Japan. The genera are Pegasus, Parapegasus/ and Zalises. The best-known species are Zalises draconis and Pegasus voli- tans. No fossil species of Pegasidce are known. CHAPTER XIV SALMOPERCLE AND OTHER TRANSITIONAL GROUPS UBORDER Salmopercae, the Trout-perches: Percopsidae. —More ancient than the Hemibranchii, and still more distinctly in the line of transition from soft-rayed to spiny-rayed fishes, is the small suborder of Salmoperccz. This is characterized by the presence of the adipose fin of the salmon, FIG. 191. — Sand-roller, Pecropsis guttatus Agassiz. Okoboji Lake, la. in connection with the mouth, scales, and fin-spines of a perch. The premaxillary forms the entire edge of the upper jaw, the maxillary being without teeth. The air-bladder retains a rudimentary duct. The bones of the head are full of mucous cavities, as in the European perch called Gymnocephalus and Acerina. There are two spines in the dorsal and one or two in the anal, while the abdominal ventrals have each a spine and eight rays. Two species only are known among living fishes, these emphasizing more perfectly than any other known forms the close relation really existing between spinous and soft- rayed forms. The single family of Percopsida would seem to find its place in Cretaceous rocks rather than in the waters of to-day. ii — 16 241 242 Salmopercs and Other Transitional Groups Percopsis guttata, the trout-perch or sand-roller of the Great Lakes, is a pale translucent fish with dark spots, reaching a length of six inches. It abounds in the Great Lakes and their tributaries and is occasionally found in the Delaware, Ohio, FIG. 192. — Oregon Trout-perch, Columbia transmontana Eigenmann. Umatilla River, Oregon. Kansas, and other rivers and northwestward as far as Medi- cine Hat on the Saskatchewan. It is easily taken with a hook from the piers at Chicago. Columbia transmontana is another little fish of similar type, but rougher and more distinctly perch-like. It is found in sandy or weedy lagoons throughout the lower basin of the Columbia, where it was first noticed by Dr. Eigenmann in 1892. FIG. 193. — Erismatopterus endlicheri Cope. Green River Eocene. (After Cope.) From the point of view of structure and classification, this lett-over form is one of the most remarkable of American fishes. Erismatopteridae. — Here should perhaps be placed the family of Erismatopteridtz, represented by Erismatopterus levatus and other species of the Green River Eocene shales. In Erismatopterus the Salmopercas and Other Transitional Groups 243 short dorsal has two or three spines, there are two or three spines in the anal, and the abdominal ventrals are opposite the dorsal. Allied to Eris- matopterus is Amphiplaga of the same deposits. We cannot, however, feel sure that these extinct frag- ments, however well preserved, belonged to fishes having an adipose fin. Among spiny- rayed fishes the Percopsidce alone retain this character, and the real affinities of Erisma- topterus may be with Aphredo- deridcB and other percoid forms. The relations of the extinct family of Asineopida are also still uncertain. This group comprises fresh-water fishes said to be allied to the Aphre- doderidce, but with the pelvic bones not forked. Asineops pauciradiata, squamijrons and viridensis are described from the Green River shales. With Erismatopterus all these fishes may belong to the suborder of SalmoperccB, but, as above stated, the possession of the adipose fin, the most characteristic trait of the Salmoperccs, cannot be verified in the fossil remains. Suborder Selenichthyes, the Opahs : Lamprididae. — We may bring together as constituting another suborder certain forms of uncer- tain relationship, but which seem to be transitional between deep-bodied extinct Ganoids and the forms allied to Platax, Zeus, and Antigonia. The name of Selenichthyes (a-rf\rfvr), moon ; ix^vs, fish) is suggested by Boulenger for the group of opahs, or moonfishes. These are characterized by the highly com- pressed body, the great development of a large hypocora- J. 194. — Shoulder-girdle of the Opah, Lampris gttttatus (Briinnich), showing the enlarged infraclavicle. (After Boulenger.) 244 Salmopercae and Other Transitional Groups coid, and especially by the structure of the ventral fins, which are composed of about fifteen rays instead of the one spine and five rays characteristic of the specialized perch- like fishes. The living forms of this type are further char- acterized by the partial or total absence of the spinous dorsal, by the small oblique mouth, and the prominence of the ventral curve of the body. A thorough study of the osteology of these forms living and fossil will be necessary before the group can be properly defined. The large bone above mentioned was at first considered by Boulenger as the interclavicle or infraclavicle, the hypocoracoid being re- garded by him as displaced, lying with the actinosts. But it is certain, from the studies of Mr. Starks, that this bone is the real hypocoracoid, which in this case is simply exaggerated in size, but placed as in ordinary fishes. The single living family, Lampridid&, contains but one species, Lampris guttatus, known as opah, moonfish, mariposa, cravo, Jerusalem haddock, or San Pedro fish. This species reaches a length of six feet and a weight of 500 to 600 pounds. Fig. 199 (Vol. I) is taken from a photograph of an example weighing 317^ pounds taken near Honolulu by Mr. E. L. Berndt. The body is almost as deep as long, plump and smooth, without scales or bony plates. The vertebrae are forty-five in number, and the large ventrals contain about fifteen rays. The dorsal is without spines, the small mouth without teeth. The color is a "rich brocade of silver and lilac, rosy on the belly, everywhere with round silvery spots." The head and back have ultramarine tints, the jaws and fins are vermilion. On a drawing of this fish made at Sable Island in 1856, Mr. James Farquhar wrote (to Dr. J. Bernard Gilpin) : "Just imagine the body, a beau- tiful silver interspersed with spots of a lighter color about the size of sixpence, the eyes very large and brilliant, with a golden ring around them. You will then have some idea of the splen- did appearance of the fish when fresh. If Caligula had seen them I might have realized a fortune." The skeleton of the opah is very firm and heavy. The flesh is of varying shades of salmon-red, tender, oily, and of a rich, exquisite flavor scarcely surpassed by any other fish whatsoever. Salmopercas and Other Transitional Groups 245 The opah is a rare fish, swimming slowly near the surface and ranging very widely in all the warm seas. It was first noticed in Norway by Gunner, the good bishop of Throndhjem, about 1780. It was soon after recorded from Elsinore, Torbay, and Madeira, and is occasionally taken in various places in Europe. It is also recorded from Newfoundland, Sable Island, Cuba, Monterey, San Pedro Point (near San Francisco), Santa Cata- lina, Honolulu, and Japan. The specimen studied by the writer came ashore at Mon- terey in an injured condition, having been worsted in a struggle with some better-armed fish. Allied to Lampris is the imposing extinct species known as Semiophorus velifer from the Eocene of Monte Bolca near Ve- rona, the type of the extinct family of Semiophoridce. This is a deep compressed fish, with very high spinous dorsal and very long, many-rayed ventrals. Other related species are known also from the Eocene, There is no evidence of any close relation between these fishes with Caranx or Platax, with which Woodward associates Semiophorus. The SemiophoridcB differ from the Lamprididaz chiefly in the development of the spinous dorsal fin, which is composed of many slender rays. Suborder Zeoidea. — Not far from the Selenichthyes and the Berycoidei we may place the singular group of John Dories, or zeoid fishes. These have the ventral fins thoracic and many-rayed, the dorsal fin provided with spines, and the post -temporal, as in the 'Chcutodontidce, fused with the skull. Dr. Boulenger calls attention to the close relation of these fishes to the flounders, and suggests the possible derivation of both from a synthetic type, the Amphistiida, found in the European Eocene. The Amphistiidcz, Zeida, and flounders are united by him to form the group or suborder Zeorhombi, characterized by the thoracic ventrals, which have the rays not I, 5 in number, by the progressive degeneration of the fin- spines and the progressive twisting of the cranium, bringing the two eyes to the same side of the head. It is not certain that the flounders are really derived from Zeus-like fishes, but no other guess as to their origin has more elements of proba- bility. FIG. 195. — Semiophorus velifer Volta. Eocene. (After Agassiz, per Zittel.) 240 Salmopercas and Other Transitional Groups 247 We may, however, regard the Zeoidea on the one hand and the Heterosomata on the other as distinct suborders. This is FIG. 196. — Amphistium paradoxum Agassiz. Upper Eocene, (Supposed ancestor of the flounders). (After Boulenger.) certain, that the flounders are descended from spiny-rayed forms and that they have no affinities with the codfishes. Amphistiidae. — The Amphistiidce, now extinct, are deep-bodied, compressed fishes, with long, continuous dorsal and anal in which a few of the anterior rays are simple, slender spines scarcely differentiated from the soft rays. The form of body and the structure of the fins are essentially as in the flounders, from which they differ chiefly by the symmetry of the head, the eyes being normally placed. Amphistium paradoxum is described by Agas- siz from the upper Eocene. It occurs in Italy and France. In its dorsal and anal fins there are about twenty-two rays, the first three or four undivided. The teeth are minute or absent and there is a high supraoccipital crest. The John Dories: Zeidae. — The singular family of Zeida, or John Dories, agrees with Chaetodonts in the single char- acter of the fusion of the post-temporal with the skull. The species, however, diverge widely in other regards, and their ventral fins are essentially those of the Berycoids. In all the species there are seven to nine soft rays in the ventral fins, as in the Berycoid fishes. Probably the character of the fused Salmopercae and Other Transitional Groups 249 post temporal has been independently derived. The anterior vertebrae in Zeus, as in Ch&todon, are closely crowded together. In the Zeidce the spinous dorsal is well developed, the body naked or with very thin scales, and provided with bony warts at least around the bases of dorsal and anal fins. The species are mostly of small size, silvery in color, living in moderate depths in warm seas. The best-known genus is Zeus, which is a group of shore-fishes of the waters of Asia and Europe. The common John Dory (called in Germany Harings-Konig, or king of the herrings), Zeus faber, abounds in shallow bays on the coasts of Europe. It reaches a length of nearly a foot, and is a striking feature of the markets of southern Europe. The dorsal spines are high, the mouth large, and on the sides is a black ring, said by some to be the mark of the thumb of St. Peter, who is reported to have taken a coin from the mouth of this species. A black spot on several other species is asso- ciated with the same legend. On the coasts of Japan abounds the Matao, or target-fish (Zeus japonicus], very similar to the European species and like it in form and color. Zenopsis nebulosa and Zen itea also occur on the coasts of Japan. The remaining Zeida (Cyttus, Zenopsis, Zenion, etc.) are all rare species occasionally dredged especially in the Australian region. Zeus priscus is recorded from the Tertiary, and Cyttoides glaronensis from the upper Eocene of Glavus. Grammicolepidae. — The Grammicolepidcu, represented by a single species, Grammicolepis brachinsculus, rarely taken off the coast of Cuba, is related to the Zeidaz. It has rough, ridged, parchment-like scales deeper than long. The ventrals are thoracic, with the rays in increased number, as in Zeus and Beryx, with each of which it suggests affinity. so CHAPTER XV BERYCOIDEI HE Berycoid Fishes. — We may place in a separate order a group of fishes, mostly spiny-rayed, which appeared earlier in geological time than any other of the spinous forms, and which in several ways represent the transition from the isospondylous fishes to those of the type of the mackerel and perch. In the berycoid fishes the ventral fins are always thoracic, the number of rays almost always greater than I, 5, and in all cases an orbitosphenoid bone is developed in connection with the septum between the orbits above. This bone is FIG. 198. — Skull of a Berycoid fish, Beryx splendens Cuv. & Val., showing the or- found in the Isospondyli ancL bitosphenoid (OS), characteristic of all , .. . c < Berycoid fishes. other primitive fishes, but ac- cording to the investigations of Mr. E. C. Starks it is wanting in all percoid and scombroid forms, as well as in the Haplomi and in all the higher fishes. This trait may therefore, among thoracic fishes, be held to define the section or suborder of Berycoidei. These fishes, most primitive of the thoracic types, were more abundant ' in Cretaceous and Eocene times than now. The possession of an increased number of soft rays in the ventral fins is archaic, although in one family, the Monocentrida, the number is reduced to three. Most of the living Berycoidei retain through life the archaic duct to the air-bladder char- acteristic of most abdominal or soft-rayed fishes. In some however, the duct is lost. For the first time in the fish series the number of twenty-four vertebrae appears. In most spiny- 250 Berycoidei 251 rayed fishes of the tropics, of whatever family, this number is retained. In every case spines are present in the dorsal fin, and in certain cases the development of the spinous dorsal surpasses that of the most extreme perch-like forms. In geological times the Berycoids preceded all other perch-like fishes. They are probably ancestral to all the latter. All the recent species, in spite of high specialization, retain' some archaic characters. The Alfonsinos: Berycidae. — The typical family, Berycidce, is composed of fishes of rather deep water, bright scarlet or black in color, with the body short and compressed, the scales varying in the different genera. The single dorsal fin has a few spines in front, and there are no barbels. The suborbi- tals are not greatly developed. The species of Beryx, called in Spanish Alfonsino, Beryx elegans and Beryx decadactylus, are widely distributed at mod- FIG. 199. — Beryx splendens Lowe. Gulf Stream. erate depths, the same species being recorded from Portugal, Madeira, Cuba, the Gulf Stream, and Japan. The colors are very handsome, being scarlet with streaks of white or golden. These fishes reach the length of a foot or more and are valued as food where sufficiently common. Numerous species of Beryx and closely allied genera are found in all rocks since Cretaceous times; Beryx dalmaticus, from the Cretaceous of Dalmatia, is perhaps the earliest. Beryx insculptus is found in New Jersey, but no other Berycoids 252 Berycoidei are yet known as fossils from North America. Sphenocephalus, with four anal spines, is found in the chalk, as are also species of Acrogaster and Pycnosterinx, these being the earliest of fishes with distinctly spiny fins. The Trachichthyidcs are deep-sea fishes with short bodies, cavernous skulls, and rough scales. The dorsal is short, with a few spines in front. The suborbitals are very broad, often covering the cheeks, and the anal fin is shorter than the dorsal, a character which separates these fishes from the Berycida, in FIG. 200. — Hoplopteryx lewesiensis (Man tell), restored. English Cretaceous Family Berycidce. (After Woodward.) which group the anal fin is very long. The belly has often a serrated edge, and the coloration is red or black, the black species being softer in body and living in deeper water. Species of Hoplostethus, notably Hoplostethus mediterraneus, are found in most seas at a considerable depth. Trachichthys, a genus scarcely distinguishable from. Hoplostethus, is found in various seas. The genus Paratrachichthys is remarkable for the anterior position of the vent, much as in Aphredoderus . Species occur in Japan and Australia. Gephyroberyx, with the dorsal fin notched, is known from Japan (G. japonicus) and Madeira (G. darwini) . We may also refer to the Trachichikyida certain species of still deeper waters, black in color and still softer in texture, with smaller scales which are often peculiar in form. These constitute the genera Caulo/epis, Anoplogaster, Alelampkaes, Berycoidei 253 and Plectromus. In Caulolepis the jaws are armed with very strong canines. Allied to the Trachichthyida are also the fossil genera Hop- lopteryx and Homonotus. Hoplopteryx lewesiensis, from the English chalk, is one of the earliest of the spiny-rayed fishes. The Soldier-fishes: Holocentridae. — The soldier-fishes (Holo- centrida}, also known as squirrel-fishes, Welshmen, soldados, matajuelos, malau, alehi, etc., are shore fishes very characteristic FIG. 201. — Paratrachichthys prosthemius Jordan & Fowler, Misaki, Japan. Family Trachuhthyidce. of rocky banks in the tropical seas. In this family the flesh is firm and the large scales very hard and with very rough edges. There are eleven spines in the dorsal and four in the anal, the third being usually very long. The ventral fins have one spine and seven soft rays. The whole head and body are rough with prickles. The coloration is always brilliant, the ground hue being scarlet or crimson, often with lines or stripes of white, black, or golden. The fishes are valued as food, and they furnish a large part of the beauty of coloration so charac- teristic of the fishes of the coral reefs. The species are active, pugnacious, carnivorous, but not especially voracious, the mouth being usually small. The genus Holocentrus is characterized by the presence of a large spine on the angle of the preopercle. Its species are 254 Berycoidei especially numerous, Holocentrus ascenscionis , abundant in Cuba, ranges northward in the Gulf Stream. Holocentrus FIG. 202. — Soldier-fish, Holocentrus ascenscionis (Osbeck). suborbitahs, the mojarra cardenal, is a small, relatively dull species swarming about the rocks of western Mexico. Holo- FIG. 203. — Soldier-fish, Holocentrus ittodai Jordan & Fowler. Riu Kiu Islands, Japan. centrus spinosissimus is a characteristic fish of Japan. Many other species abound throughout Polynesia and the East Indies, as well as in tropical America. Holocentrus ruber and Holo- Berycoidei 255 centrus diadema are common species of Polynesia and the East Indies. Other abundant species are H. spinifer, H. microstomus, and H. violascens. Holocentrus marianus is the marian of the French West Indies,, Holocentrus sammara, and related large-mouthed species occur in Polynesia. In Myripristis the preopercular spine is wanting and the air-bladder is divided into two parts, the anterior extending to the ear. Myripristis jacobus is the brilliantly colored candil, FIG. 204. — Ostichthys japonicus (Cuv. & Val.). Giran, Formosa. or "Frere Jacques," of the West Indies. Species of Myripris- tis are known in Hawaii as u-u. A curious method of catching Myripristis murdjan is pursued on the Island of Hawaii. A living fish is suspended by a cord in front of a reef inhabited by this species. It remains with scarlet fins spread and glisten- ing red scales. Its presence is a challenge to other individuals, who rush out to attack it. These are then drawn out by a concealed scoop-net, and a fresh specimen is taken as a decoy. Myripristis pralinius, M. multiradiatus, and other species occur in Polynesia. Ostichthys is allied to Myripristis but with very large rough scales. Ostichthys japonicus is a large and showy fish of the waters of Japan. Ostichthys pillii'axi 256 Berycoidei occurs at Honolulu. Holotrachys lima is a small, brick-red fish with small very rough scales found throughout Polynesia. Fossil species of Holocentrus, Myripristis, and related extinct genera occur in the Eocene and Miocene. Holocentrus macro- cephalus, from Monte Bolca Eocene, is one of the best known. Myricanthus leptacanthus from the same region, has very slender spines in the fins. The Polymixiidae. — The family of Polymixiida, or barbudos, is one of the most interesting in Ichthyology from its bewilder- ing combination of characters belonging to different groups. With the general aspect of a Berycoid, the ventral rays I, 7, (A/ FIG. 205. — Pine-cone Fish, Monocentris japonicus (Houttuyn). Waka, Japan. and the single dorsal fin with a few spines, Polymixia has the scales rather smooth and at the chin are two long barbels which look remarkably like those of the family of Mullida or Sur- mullets. As in the Mullida, there are but four branchiostegals. In other regards the two groups seem to have little in common. According to Starks, the specialized feelers at the chin are different in structure and must have been independently developed in the two groups. In Polymixia, each barbel is suspended from the hypohyal ; three rudimentary branchioste- gals forming its thickened base. In Mullus, each barbel is sus- pended from the trip of a slender projection of the ceratohyal, having no connection with the branchiostegals. Polymixia pos- Berycoidei 257 sesses the orbitosphenoid bone and is a true berycoid, while the Mullidcc are genuine percoid fishes. Four species of Polymixia are recorded from rather deep water: Polymixia nobilis from Madeira, Polymixia lowei from the West Indies, Polymixia berndti from Hawaii, and Poly- mixia japonica from Japan. All are plainly colored, without red. The Pine-cone Fishes: Monocentridae. — Among the most ex- traordinary of all fishes is the little family of Monocentridce, or pine-cone fishes. Monocentris japonicus, the best-known species, is common on the coasts of Japan. It reaches the length of five inches. The body is covered with a coat of mail, made of rough plates which look as though carelessly put together. The dorsal spines are very strong, and each ventral fin is replaced by a very strong rough spine. The animal fully justifies the remark of its discoverer, Houttuyn (1782), that it is " the most remarkable fish which exists." It is dull golden brown in color, and in movement as sluggish as a trunkfish. A similar species, called knightfish, Monocentris glorice-maris, is found in Australia. No fossils allied to Monocentris are known. 11—17 CHAPTER XVI PERCOMORPHI UBORDER Percomorphi, the Mackerels and Perches. — We may place in a single suborder the various groups of fishes which cluster about the perches, and the mackerels. The group is not easily definable and may con- tain heterogeneous elements. We may, however, arrange in it, for our present purposes, those spiny-rayed fishes having the ventral fins thoracic, of one spine and five rays (the ventral fin occasionally wanting or defective, having a reduced number of rays), the lower pharyngeal bones separate, the suborbital chain without backward extension or bony stay, the post-temporal normally developed and separate from the cranium, the premaxillary and maxillary distinct, the cranium itself without orbitosphenoid bone, having a structure not greatly unlike that of perch or mackerel, and the back- bone primitively of twenty-four vertebrae, the number increased in arctic, pelagic, or fresh-water offshoots. The species, comprising the great body of the spiny-rayed forms, group themselves chiefly about two central families, the ScombridfE, or mackerels, and the Serranidcc, the sea-bass, with their fresh-water allies, the Percida, or perch. The Mackerel Tribe: Scombroidea. — The two groups of Per- comorphi, the mackerel-like and the perch-like, admit of no exact definition, as the one fully grades into the other. The mackerel-like forms, or Scombroidea, as a whole are defined by their adaptation for swift movement. The profile is sharp an- teriorly, the tail slender, with widely forked caudal; the scales are usually small, thin, and smooth, of such a character as not to produce friction in the water. In general the external surface is smooth, the skeleton light and strong, the muscles firm, and the species are carniv- 253 Percomorphi 259 orous and predaceous. But among the multitude of forms are many variations, and some of these will seem to be exceptions to any definition of mackerel-like fishes which could possibly be framed. The mackerels, or Scombroidea, have usually the tail very slender, composed of very strong bones, with widely forked fin. In the perch and bass the tail is stout, composed largely of flesh, the supporting vertebrae relatively small and spread out fan-fashion behind. Neither mackerels nor perch nor any of their near allies ever have more than five soft rays in the ventral fins, and the persistence of this number throughout the Per- comorphi, Squamipinnes, Pharyngognathi, and spiny fishes generally must be attributed to inheritance from the primitive perch-like or mackerel-like forms. In almost all the groups to be considered in this work, after the Berycoidea the ventral rays are I, 5, or else fewer through degeneration, never more. In the central or primitive members of most of these groups there are twenty-four vertebras, the number increased in cer- tain forms, probably through repetitive degeneration. The True Mackerels: Scombridae. — We may first consider the great central family of Scombridce, or true mackerels, distinguished among related families by their swift forms, smooth scales, metallic coloration, and technically by the presence of a number of detached finlets behind the dorsal and anal fins. The cut of the mouth is peculiar, the spines in the fins are feeble, the muscular system is extremely strong, the flesh oily, and the air-bladder reduced in size or altogether wanting. As in most swift-swimming fishes and fishes of pelagic habit, the vertebras are numerous and relatively small, an arrangement which promotes flexibility of body. It is not likely that this group is the most primitive of the scombroid fishes. In some respects the Stromateidce stand nearer the primitive stock. The true mackerels, however, furnish the most convenient point of departure in reviewing the great group. In the genus of true mackerels, Scomber, the dorsal fins are well separated, the first being rather short, and the scales of the shoulders are not modified to form a corselet. There are numerous species, two of them of general interest. The 260 Percomorphi common mackerel, Scomber scombrus, is one of the best known of food-fishes. It is probably confined to the Atlantic, where on both shores it runs in vast schools, the movements varying greatly from season to season, the preference being for cool waters. The female mackerel produces about 500,000 eggs each year, according to Professor Goode. These are very minute and each is provided with an oil-globule, which causes it to float on the surface. About 400,000 barrels of mackerel are salted yearly by the mackerel fleet of Massachusetts. Single schools of mackerel, estimated to contain a million barrels, have been recorded. Captain Harding describes such a school FIG. 206. — Mackerel, Scomber scombrus L. New York. as "a windrow of fish half a mile wide and twenty miles long." Professor Goode writes: "Upon the abundance of mackerel depends the welfare of many thousands of the citizens of Massachusetts and Maine. The success of the mackerel-fishery is much more uncertain than that of the cod-fishery, for instance, for the supply of cod is quite uniform from year to year. The prospects of each season are eagerly discussed from week to week in thousands of little circles along the coast, and are chronicled by the local press. The story of each successful trip is passed from mouth to mouth, and is a matter of general congratulation in each fishing community. A review of the results of the American mackerel-fishery, and of the movements of the fish in each part of the season, would be an important contribution to the literature of the American fisheries. "The mackerel-fishery is peculiarly American, and its history is full of romance. There are no finer vessels afloat than the Percomorphi 261 American mackerel-schooners — yachts of great speed and unsurpassed for seaworthiness. The modern instruments of capture are marvels of inventive skill, and require the highest degree of energy and intelligence on the part of the fisher- men. The crews of the mackerel-schooners are still for the most part Americans of the old colonial stock, although the cod and halibut fisheries are to a great extent given up to foreigners. "When the mackerel is caught, trout, bass, and sheeps- head cannot vanquish him in a gastronomic tournament. In Holland, to be sure, the mackerel is not prized, and is accused of tasting like rancid fish-oil, and in England, even, they are usually lean and dry, like the wretched skeletons which are brought to market in April and May by the southern fleet, which goes forth in the early spring from Massachusetts to intercept the schools as they approach the coasts of Carolina and Virginia. They are not worthy of the name of mackerel. Scomber Scombrus is not properly in season until the spawning time is over, when the schools begin to feed at the surface in the Gulf of Maine and the 'North Bay.' "Just from the water, fat enough to broil in its own drip- pings, or slightly corned in strong brine, caught at night and eaten in the morning, a mackerel or a bluefish is unsurpass- able. A well-cured autumn mackerel is perhaps the finest of all salted fish, but in these days of wholesale capture by the purse-seine, hasty dressing and careless handling, it is very dif- ficult to obtain a sweet and sound salt mackerel. Salt mack- erel may be boiled as well as broiled, and a fresh mackerel may be cooked in the same manner. Americans will usually prefer to do without the sauce of fennel and gooseberry which transatlantic cooks recommend. Fresh and salt, fat and lean, new or stale, mackerel are consumed by Americans in immense quantities, as the statistics show, and whatever their state, always find ready sale." Smaller, less important, less useful, but far more widely distributed is the chub-mackerel, or thimble-eyed mackerel, Scomber japonicus (Houttuyn, 1782), usually known by the later name of Scomber colias (Gmelin, 1788). In this species the air-bladder (absent in the common mackerel) is moder- 262 Percomorphi ately developed. It very much resembles the true mackerel, but is of smaller size, less excellence as a food-fish, and keeps nearer to the shore. It may be usually distinguished by the presence of vague, dull-gray spots on the sides, where the true mackerel is lustrous silvery. This fish is common in the Mediterranean, along our Atlantic coast, on the coast of California, and everywhere in Japan. Scomber antarcticus is the familiar mackerel of Australia. Scomber loo, silvery, with round black spots, is the common mackerel of the South Seas, locally known as Ga. Scomber prisons is a fossil mackerel from the Eocene. Auxis thazard, the frigate mackerel, has the scales of the shoulders enlarged and somewhat coalescent, forming what is called a corselet. The species ranges widely through the seas of the world in great numbers, but very erratic, sometimes myriads reaching our Eastern coast, then none seen for years. It is more constant in its visits to Japan and Hawaii. Fossil species of Auxis are found in the Miocene. The genus Gymnosarda has the corselet as in Auxis, but the first dorsal fin is long, extending backward to the base of the second. Its two species, Gymnosarda pelamis, the Oceanic bonito, and Gymnosarda alleterata, the little tunny, are found in all warm seas, being especially abundant in the Mediterra- nean, about Hawaii and Japan. These are plump fish of mod- erate size, with very red and very oily flesh. Closely related to these is the great tunny, or Tuna (Thunnus thynnus} found in all warm seas and reaching at times a weight of 1500 pounds. These enormous fishes are much valued by anglers, a popular "Tuna Club" devoted to the sport of catch- ing them with a hook having its headquarters at Avalon, on Santa Catalina Island, in California. They are good food, although the flesh of the large ones is very oily. The name horse-mackerel is often given to these monsters on the New England coast. In California, the Spanish name of tuna has become current among fisherman. Very similar to the tuna, but much smaller, is the Albacore (Germo alalonga). This reaches a weight of fifteen to thirty pounds, and is known by its very long, almost ribbon-like pec- toral fins. This species is common in the Mediterranean, and Percomorphi 263 about the Santa Barbara Islands, where it runs in great schools in March. The flesh of the albacore is of little value, unless, as in Japan, it is eaten raw. The Japanese shibi (Germo germo) is another large albacore, having the finlets bright yellow. It is found also at Hawaii. The bonito (Sarda sarda) wanders far throughout the Atlan- tic, abounding on our Atlantic coast as in the Mediterranean, coming inshore in summer to spawn or feed. Its flesh is red and not very delicate, though it may be reckoned as a fair food- Fio. 207.— The Long-fin Albacore, Germo alalunga (Gmelin). Gulf Stream. fish. It is often served under the name of " Spanish mackerel " to the injury of the reputation of the better fish. Professor Goode writes: "One of these fishes is a marvel of beauty and strength. Every line in its contour is suggestive of swift motion. The head is shaped like a minie bullet, the jaws fit together so tightly that a knife-edge could scarcely pass between, the eyes are hard, smooth, their surfaces on a perfect level with the adjoining surfaces. The shoulders are heavy and strong, the contours of the powerful masses of muscle gently and evenly merging into the straighter lines in which the contour of the body slopes back to the tail. The dorsal fin is placed in a groove into which it is received, like the blade of a clasp-knife in its handle. The pectoral and ventral fins also fit into depres- sions in the sides of the fish. Above and below, on the pos- terior third of the body, are placed the little finlets, each a little rudder with independent motions of its own, by which the course of the fish may be readily steered. The tail itself is a 264 Percomorphi crescent-shaped oar, without flesh, almost without scales, com- posed of bundles of rays flexible, yet almost as hard as ivory. A single sweep of this powerful oar doubtless suffices to propel the bonito a hundred yards, for the polished surfaces of its body can offer little resistance to the water. I have seen a common dolphin swimming round and round a steamship, advancing at the rate of twelve knots an hour, the effort being hardly perceptible. The wild duck is said to fly seventy miles in an hour. Who can calculate the speed of the bonito? It might be done by the aid of the electrical contrivances by which is calculated the initial velocity of a projectile. The bonitoes in our sounds to-day may have been passing Cape Colony or the Land of Fire day before yesterday." Another bonito, Sarda chilensis, is common in California ; in Chile, and in Japan. This species has fewer dorsal spines than the bonito of the Atlantic, but the same size, coloration, and flesh. Both are blue, with undulating black stripes along the side of the back. The genus Scomberomorus includes mackerels slenderer in form, with larger teeth, no corselet, and the flesh comparatively pale and free from oil. Scomberomorus maculatus, the Spanish mackerel of the West Indies, is one of the noblest of food-fishes. Its biography FIG. 208. — The Spanish Mackerel, Scomberomorus maculatus (Mitchill). New York. was written by Mitchill almost a century ago in these words : "A fine and beautiful fish; comes in July." Goode thus writes of it: "The Spanish mackerel is surely one of the most graceful Percomorphi 265 of fishes. It appeals as scarcely any other can to our love of beauty, when we look upon it, as shown in Kilbourn's well- known painting, darting like an arrow just shot from the bow, its burnished sides, silver flecked with gold, thrown into bold relief by the cool green background of the rippled sea; the transparent grays, opalescent whites, and glossy blacks of its trembling fins enhance the metallic splendor of its body, until it seems to rival the most brilliant of tropical birds. Kilbourn made copies of his large painting on the pearly linings of sea- shells and produced some wonderful effects by allowing the natural luster of the mother-of-pearl to show through his trans- parent pigments and simulate the brilliancy of the life-inspired hues of the quivering, darting sea-sprite, whose charms even his potent brush could not properly depict. "It is a lover of the sun, a fish of tropical nature, which comes to us only in midsummer, and which disappears with the approach of cold, to some region not yet explored by ich- thyologists. It is doubtless very familiar in winter to the inhabitants of some region adjacent to the waters of the Carib- bean or the tropical Atlantic, but until this place shall have been discovered it is more satisfactory to suppose that with the bluefish and the mackerel it inhabits that hypothetical winter resort to which we send the migratory fishes whose habits we do not understand — the middle strata of the ocean, the floating beds of Sargassum, which drift hither and thither under the alternate promptings of the Gulf-stream currents and the winter winds." The Spanish mackerel swims at the surface in moderate schools and is caught in abundance from Cape May south- ward. Its white flesh is most delicious, when properly grilled, and Spanish mackerel, like pampano, should be cooked in no other way. A very similar species, Scomberomorus sierra, occurs on the west coast of Mexico. For some reason it is little valued as food by the Mexicans. In California, the' Monterey Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus concolor] is equally excellent as a food-fish. This fish lacks the spots characteristic of most of its relatives. It was first found in the Bay of Monterey, especially at Santa Cruz and Soquel, in abundance in the autumn 266 Percomorphi of 1879 and 1880. It has not, so far as is known, been seen since, nor is the species recorded from any other coast. The true Spanish mackerel has round, bronze-black spots upon its sides. Almost exactly like it in appearance is the pintado, or sierra (Scomberomorus regalis], but in this species the spots are oblong in form. The pintado abounds in the West Indies. Its flesh is less delicate than that of the more true Spanish mackerel. The name sierra, saw, commonly applied to these fishes by Spanish-speaking people, has been corrupted into cero in some books on angling. Still other Spanish mackerel of several species occur on the coasts of India, Chile, and Japan. The great kingfish, or ca valla (Scomberomorus cavalla), is a huge Spanish mackerel of Cuba and the West Indies, reaching a weight of 100 pounds. It is dark iron-gray in color, one of the best of food-fishes, and is unspotted, and its firm, rich flesh resembles that of the barracuda. Still larger is the great guahu, or peto, an immense sharp- nosed, swift-swimming mackerel found in the East and West Indies, as well as in Polynesia, reaching a length of six feet and a weight of more than a hundred pounds. Its large knife-like teeth are serrated on the edge and the color is almost black. Acanthocybium solandri is the species found in Hawaii and Japan. The American Acanthocybium petus, occasionally also taken in the Mediterranean, may be the same species. Fossil Spanish mackerels, tunnies, and albacores, as well as representatives of related genera now extinct, abound in the Eocene and Miocene, especially in northern Italy. Among them are Scomber antiquus from the Miocene, Scombrinus macropomus from the Eocene London clays, much like Scomber, but with stronger teeth, Sphyranodus priscus from the same deposits, the teeth still larger, Scombramphodon crossidens, from the same deposits, also with strong teeth, like those of Scomberomorus. Scomberomorus is the best represented of all the genera as fossil, Scomberomorus speciosus and numerous other species occurring in the Eocene. A fossil species of Germo, G. lanceolatus, occurs at Monte Bolca in Eocene rocks. Another tunny, with very small teeth is Eothynnus salmonens, Percomorphi 267 from the lower Eocene near London. Several other tunny- like fishes occur in the lower Tertiary. The Escolars : Gempylidae. — More predaceous than the mack- erels and tunnies are the pelagic mackerels, Gempylidce, known as e scalar s ("scholars"), with the body almost band-shaped and the teeth very large and sharp. Some of these, from the ocean depths, are violet-black in color, those near the surface being silvery. Escolar violaceus lives in the abysses of the Gulf Stream. Ruvettus pretiosus, the black escolar, lives in more moderate depths and is often taken in Cuba, Madeira, Hawaii, and Japan. It is a very large fish, black, with very rough scales. The flesh is white, soft, and full of oil; sometimes rated very high, and at other times too rank to be edible. The name escolar means scholar in Spanish, but its root meaning, as applied to this fish, comes from a word meaning to scour, in allusion to the very rough scales. Promethichthys prometheus, the rabbit-fish, or conejo, so- called from its wariness, is caught in the same regions, being especially common about Madeira and Hawaii. Gempylus serpens, the snake-mackerel, is a still slenderer and more voracious fish of the open seas. Thy r sites atun is the Australian "barra- cuda," a valued food-fish, voracious and predaceous. Scabbard- and Cutlass-fishes : Lepidopidae and Trichiuridae. — The family of Lepidopidce, or scabbard-fishes, includes degen- erate mackerels, band-shaped, with continuous dorsal fin, and the long jaws armed with very small teeth. These are found in the open sea, Lepidopus candatus being the most common. This species reaches a length of five or six feet and comes to different coasts occasionally to deposit its spawn. It lives in warm water and is at once chilled by the least cold; hence the name of frostfish occasionally applied to it. Several species of Lepidopus are fossil in the later Tertiary. Lepido- pus glarisianus occurs in the Swiss Oligocene, and with it Thyrsitocephalus alpinus, which approaches more nearly to the Gempylida. Still more degenerate are the Trichiuridce, or cutlass-fishes, in which the caudal fin is wanting, the tail ending in a hair-like filament. The species are bright silvery in color, very slender, and very voracious, reaching a length of three to five feet. 268 Percomorphi Trichiurus lepturus is rather common on our Atlantic coast. The names hairfish and silver-eel, among others, are often given to it. Trichiurus japonicus, a very similar species, is common FIG. 209. — Cutlass-fish, Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus. Fla. in Japan, and other species inhabit the tropical seas. Tri- chiurichthys, a fossil genus with well-developed scales, precedes Trichiurus in the Miocene. The Palaeorhynchidse. — The extinct family of Pal&orhynchidce is found from the Eocene to the Oligocene. It contains very FIG. 210. — Pakeorhynchus glarisianus Blainville. Oligocene. (After Woodward.) long and slender fishes, with long jaws and small teeth, the dorsal fin long and continuous. The species resembles the Escolar on the one hand and the sailfishes on the other, and they may prove to be ancestral to the Istiophorida. Hemi- rhynchus deshayesi with the upper jaw twice as long as the lower, sword-like, occurs in the Eocene at Paris ; Palaorhynchum glarisianum, with the jaws both elongate, the lower longest, is in the Oligocene of Glarus. Several other species of both genera are recorded. The Sailfishes: Istiophoridae. — Remotely allied to the cutlass- fishes and still nearer to the PalceorhynchidcB is the family of sailfishes, Istiophorida, having the upper jaw prolonged into Percomorphi 269 a sword made of consolidated bones. The teeth are very feeble and the ventral fins reduced to two or three rays. The species are few in number, of large size, and very brilliant metallic coloration, inhabiting the warm seas, moving northward in summer. They are excellent as food, similar to the swordfish in this as in many other respects. The species are not well known, being too large for museum purposes, and no one having critically studied them in the field. Istiophorus has the dorsal fin very high, like a great sail, and undivided; Istiophorus ni- gricans is rather common about the Florida Keys, where it reaches a length of six feet. Its great sail, blue with black spots, is a very striking object. Closely related to this is Istiophorus orientalis of Japan and other less known species of the East Indies. Tetrapturus, the spearfish, has the dorsal fin low and divided into two parts. Its species are taken in most warm seas, Tetrapturus imperator throughout the Atlantic, Tetrapturus am.'- plus in Cuba, Tetrapturus mitsukurii and Tetrapturus mazara in Japan. These much resemble swordfish in form and habits, and they have been known to strike boats in the same way. Fossil Istiophoridce are known only from fragments of the snout, in Europe and America, referred provisionally to Istio- phorus. The genus Xiphiorhynchus ; fossil swordfishes from the Eocene, known from the skull only, may be referred to this family, as minute teeth are present in the jaws. Xiphiorhyn- chus priscus is found in the London Eocene. The Swordfishes: Xiphiidae. — The family of swordfishes, Xiphiidce, consists of a single species, Xiphias gladius, of world- FIG. 211. — Young Swordfish, Xiphias gladius (Linnaeus). (After Lutken.) wide distribution in the warm seas. The snout in the sword- fish is still longer, more perfectly consolidated, and a still more effective weapon of attack. The teeth are wholly wanting, and there are no ventral fins, while the second of the two fins on the back is reduced to a slight finlet. 270 Percomorphi The swordfish follows the schools of mackerel to the New England coasts. "Where you see swordfish, you may know that mackerel are about," Goode quotes from an old fisherman. The swordfish swims near the surface, allowing its dorsal fin to appear, as also the upper lobe of the caudal. It often leaps out of the water, and none of all the fishes of the sea can swim more swiftly. "The pointed head," says Goode, "the fins of the back and abdomen snugly fitting into grooves, the absence of ventrals, the long, lithe, muscular body, sloping slowly to the tail, fit FIG. 212. — Swordfish, Xiphias gladius (Linnseus). (After Day.) it for the most rapid and forcible movement through the water. Prof. Richard Owen, testifying in an England court in regard to its power, said: "'It strikes with the accumulated force of fifteen double- handed hammers. Its velocity is equal to that of a swivel-shot, and is as dangerous in its effects as a heavy artillery projectile.' "Many very curious instances are on record of the encoun- ters of this fish with other fishes, or of their attacks upon ships. What can be the inducement for it to attack objects so much larger than itself it is hard to surmise. " It surely seems as if a temporary insanity sometimes takes possession of the fish. It is not strange that, when harpooned, it should retaliate by attacking its assailant. An old sword- fish fisherman told Mr. Blackford that his vessel had been struck twenty times. There are, however, many instances of entirely unprovoked assault on vessels at sea. Many of these are recounted in a later portion of this memoir. Their move- ments when feeding are discussed below, as well as their alleged peculiarities of movement during the breeding season. Percomorphi 271 "It is the universal testimony of our fishermen that two are never seen swimming close together. Capt. Ashby says that they are always distant from each other at least thirty or forty feet. "The pugnacity of the swordfish has become a byword. Without any special effort on my part numerous instances of their attacks upon vessels have in the last ten years found their way into the pigeon-hole labeled 'Swordfish." Swordfishes are common on both shores of the Atlantic wherever mackerel run. They do not breed on our shores, but probably do so in the Mediterranean and other warm seas. They are rare off the California coast, but five records existing (Anacapa, Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina, San Diego, off Cerros Island). The writer has seen two large individuals in the market of Yokohama, but it is scarcely known in Japan. As a food-fish, the swordfish is one of the best, its dark-colored oily flesh, though a little coarse, making most excellent steaks. Its average weight on our coast is about 300 pounds, the maximum 625. The swordfish undergoes great change in the process of de- velopment, the very young having the head armed with rough spines and in nowise resembling the adult. Fossil swordfishes are unknown, or perhaps cannot be dis- tinguished from remains of Istiophorida. CHAPTER XVII CAVALLAS AND PAMPANOS 1 HE Pampanos : Carangidae. — We next take up the great family of Pampanos, Carangida, distinguished from the Scombrid(B as a whole by the shorter, deeper body, the fewer and larger vertebrae, and by the loss of the pro- vision for swift movement in the open sea characteristic of the mackerels and their immediate allies. A simple mark of the CarangidcB is the presence of two separate spines in front of the anal fin. These spines are joined to the fin in the young. All of the species undergo considerable changes with age, and almost all are silvery in color with metallic blue on the back. Most like the true mackerel are the "leather-jackets," or "runners," forming the genera Scomber -aides and Oligoplites. Scomberoides of the Old World has the body scaly, long, slender, and fitted for swift motion ; Scomberoides sancti-petri is a widely diffused species, and others are found in Polynesia. In the New World genus Oligoplites the scales are reduced to linear ridges imbedded in the skin at different angles. Oligoplites saurus is a common dry and bony fish abounding in the West Indies and ranging north in summer to Cape Cod. Naucrates ductor, the pilotfish, or romero, inhabits the open sea, being taken — everywhere rarely — in Europe, the West Indies, Hawaii, and Japan. It is marked by six black cross-bands. Its tail has a keel, and it reaches a length of about two feet. In its development it undergoes considerable change, its first dorsal fin being finally reduced to disconnected spines. The amber-fishes, forming the genus Seriola, are rather robust fishes, with the anal fin much shorter than the soft dor- sal. The sides of the tail have a low, smooth keel. From a yellow streak obliquely across the head in some species they receive their Spanish name of coronado. The species are 272 Cavallas and Pampanos 273 numerous, found in all warm seas, of fair quality as food, and range in length from two to six feet. FIG. 213. — Pilot-fish, Naucrates ductor (Linnaeus). New Bedford, Mass. Seriola dorsalis is the noted yellow-tail of California, valued by anglers for its game qualities. It comes to the Santa Bar- FIG. 214. — Amber-fish, Seriola lalandi (Cuv. & Vol.). Family Carangidae. Wood's Hole. bara Islands in early summer. Seriola zonata is the rudder- fish, or shark's pilot, common on our New England coast. The banded young, abundant off Cape Cod, lose their marks with age. Seriola hippos is the "samson-fish" of Australia. Seri- ola lalandi is the great amber-fish of the West Indies, occa- sionally venturing farther northward, and Seriola dumerili the amber-jack, or coronado, of the Mediterranean. The deep- bodied medregal (Seriola' fasciata] is also taken in the West Indies, as is also the high-finned Seriola rivoliana. Species very similar to these occur in Hawaii and Japan, where they ii— 18 274 Cavallas and Pampanos are known as Ao, or bluefishes. Seriola lata is fossil in the mountains of Tuscany. The runner, Elegatis bipinnulatus , differs from Seriola in having a finlet behind dorsal and anal. It is found in almost all warm seas, ranging north once in a while to Long Island. The mackerel scads (Decapterus) have also a finlet, and on the posterior part of the body the lateral line is shielded with bony plates. In size and form these little fishes much resemble small mackerel, and they are much valued as food wherever abundant. Decapterus punclatus, known also as cigar-fish and round-robin, frequently visits our Atlantic coasts from the West Indies, where it is abundant. Decapterus russelli is the Maru- aji, highly valued in Japan for its abundance, while Decapterus muroadsi is the Japanese muroaji. Megalaspis cordyla abounds in the East Indies and Poly- FIG. 215. — The Saurel, Trachurus trachurus (Linnaeus). Newport, R. I. nesia. It has many finlets, and the bony plates on the lateral line are developed to an extraordinary degree. In Trachurus the finlets are lost and the bony plates extend the whole length of the lateral line. The species known as saurel and wrongly called horse-mackerel are closely related and some of them very widely distributed. Trachurus trachurus common in Europe, extends to Japan where it is the abundant maaji. Trachurus mediterraneus is common in southern Europe and Trachurus symmetricus in California. Trachurus picturatus of Madeira is much the same Cavallas and Pampanos 275 as the last named, and there is much question as to the right names and proper limits of all these species. In Trachurops the bony plates are lacking on the anterior half of the body, and theje is a peculiar nick and projection on the lower part of the anterior edge of the shoulder-girdle. Trachurops crumenophthalma, the goggler, or big-eyed scad, ranges widely in the open sea and at Hawaii, as the Akule, is the most highly valued because most abundant of the migra- tory fishes. At Samoa it is equally abundant, the name being here Atule. Trachurops torva is the meaji, or big-eyed scad, of the Japanese, always abundant. To Caranx, Carangus, and a number of related genera, charac- terized by the bony armature on the narrow caudal peduncle, a host of species may be referred. These fishes, known as cavallas, FIG. 216. — Yellow Mackerel, Carangus chrysos (Mitchill). Wood's Hole. hard-tails, jacks, etc., are broad-bodied, silvery or metallic black in color, and are found in all warm seas. They usually move from the tropics northward in the fall in search of food and are espe- cially abundant on our Atlantic coast, in Polynesia, and in Japan. About the Oceanic Islands they are resident, these being their chosen spawning-grounds. In Hawaii and Samoa they form a large part of the food-supply, the ulua (Carangus forsteri) and the malauli (Carangus melampygus] being among the most valuable food-fishes, large in size and excellent in flesh, unsurpassed in fish chowders. Of the American species Carangus chrysos, called yellow mackerel, is the most abundant, ranging from Cape 276 Cavallas and Pampanos Cod southward. This is an elongate species of moderate size. The cavalla, or jiguagua, Carangus hippos, known by the black spot on the opercle, with another on the pectoral fin, is a widely distributed species and one of the largest of the tribe. Another important food-fish is the horse-eye-jack, or jurel, Carangus latus, which is very similar to the species called ulua in the Pacific. The black jack, ortifiosa, of Cuba, Carangus fitnebris, is said to be often poisonous. This is a very large species, black in color, the sale of which has been long forbidden in the markets of Havana. The young of different species of Carangus are often found taking refuge under the disk of jelly-fishes protected by the stinging feelers. The species of the genus Carangus have well- developed teeth. In the restricted genus of Caranx proper, the jaws are toothless. Caranx speciosus, golden with dark cross- bands, is a large food-fish of the Pacific. Citula armata is another widely distributed species, with some of the dorsal rays produced in long filaments. In Alectis ciliaris, the cobbler-fish, or threadfish, the arma- ture of the tail is very slight and each fin has some of its rays drawn out into long threads. In the young these are very much longer than the body, but with age they wear off and grow shorter, while the body becomes more elongate. In Vomer, Selene, and Chloroscombrus the bony armature of the tail, feeble in Alectis, by degrees entirely disappears. Vomer setipinnis, the so-called moonfish, or jorobado, has the body greatly elevated, compressed, and distorted, while the fins, growing shorter with age, become finally very low. Selene vomer, the horse-head-fish, or look-down (see Fig. 113, Vol. I), is similarly but even more distorted. The fins, filamentous in the young, grow shorter with age, as in Vomer and Alectis. The skeleton in these fishes is essentially like that of Carangus, the only difference lying in the compression and distortion of the bones. Chloroscombrus contains the casabes, or bumpers, thin, dry, compressed fish, of little value as food, the bony armature of the tail being wholly lost. To the genus Trachinotus belong the pampanos, broad- bodied, silvery fishes, toothless when adult, the bodies covered with small scales and with no bony plates. The true pampano, Trachinotus carolinus, is one of the Cavallas and Pampanos 277 finest jf all food-fishes, ranking with the Spanish mackerel and to be cooked in the same way, only by broiling. The flesh is white, firm, and flaky, with a moderate amount of delicate oil. It has no especial interest to the angler and it is not abundant enough to be of great commercial importance, yet few fish bring or deserve to bring higher prices in the markets of the FIG. 217. — The Pampano, Trachinotus carolinus (Linnaeus). Wood's Hole. epicures. The species is most common along our Gulf coast, ranging northward along the Carolinas as far as Cape Cod. Pampano in Spanish means the leaf of the grape, from the broad body of the fish. The spelling "pompano" should there- fore be discouraged. The other pampanos, of which there are several in tropical America and Asia, are little esteemed, the flesh being dry and relatively flavorless. Trachinotus palometa, the gafftopsail pam- pano, has very high fins and its sides have four black bands like the marks of a grill. The round pampano, Trachinotus falcatus, is common southward, as is also the great pampano, Trachinotus goodei, which reaches a length of three feet. Trach- inotus ovatus, a large deep-bodied pampano, is common in Polynesia and the East Indies. No pampanos are found in Europe, but a related genus, Lichia, contains species which much resemble them, but in which the body is more elongate and the mouth larger. Numerous fossils are referred to the Carangidaz with more 278 Cavallas and Pampanos or less certainty. Aipichthys pretiosus and other species occur in the Cretaceous. These are deep-bodied fishes resembling Seriola, having the falcate dorsal twice as long as the anal and the ventral ridge with thickened scales. Vomeropsis (longispina elongata, etc.), also from the Eocene, with rounded caudal, the anterior dorsal rays greatly elongate, and the supraoccipital crest highly developed, probably constitutes with it a distinct family, Vomeropsidce. Several species referable to Carangus are found in the Miocene. Archaus glarisianus, resembling Carangus, but without scales so far as known, is found in the Oligocene of Glarus; Seriola prisca and other species of Seriola occur in the Eocene; Carangopsis brevis, etc., allied to Caranx, but with the lateral line unarmed, is recorded from the Eocene of France and Italy. Ductor leptosomus from the Eocene of Monte Bolca resembles Naucrates; Trachinotus tenuiceps is recorded from Monte Bolca, and a species of uncertain relationship, called Pseudovomer minutus, with sixteen caudal vertebrae is taken from the Miocene of Licata. The Papagallos: Nematistiidae. — Very close to the Carangidce, and especially to the genus Seriola, is the small family of Nematistiidce, containing the papagallo, Nematistius pectoralis of the west coast of Mexico. This large and beautiful fish has the general appearance of an amber-fish, but the dorsal spines are produced in long filaments. The chief character of the family is found in the excessive division of the rays of the pectoral fins. The Bluefishes: Cheilodipteridse. — Allied to the Carangidcs is the family of bluefishes (Cheilodipteridcs , or Pomatomidoe}. The single species Cheilodipterus saltatrix, or Pomatomus saltatrix, known as the bluefish, is a large, swift, extremely voracious fish, common throughout most of the warmer parts of the Atlantic, but very irregularly distributed on the various coasts. Its distribution is doubtless related to its food. It is more abun- dant on our Eastern coast than anywhere else, and its chief food here is the menhaden. The bluefish differs from the Carangidcs mainly in its larger scales, and in a slight serration of the bones of the head. Its flesh is tender and easily torn. As a food-fish, rich, juicy, and delicate, it has few superiors. Cavallas and Pampanos 279 Its maximum, weight is from, twelve to twenty pounds, but most of those taken are much smaller. It is one of the most voracious of all fish. Concerning this, Professor Baird observes : "There is no parallel in point of destructiveness to the bluefish among the marine species on our coast, whatever may be the case among some of the carnivorous fish of the South American waters. The bluefish has been well likened to an animated chopping-machine the business of which is to cut to pieces and otherwise destroy as many fish as possible in a FIG. 218.— Bluefish, Cheilodipterus saltatrix (L.). New York. given space of time. All writers are unanimous in regard to the destructiveness of the bluefish. Going in large schools in pursuit of fish not much inferior to themselves in size, they move along like a pack of hungry wolves, destroying every- thing before them. Their trail is marked by fragments of fish and by the stain of blood in the sea, as, where the fish is too large to be swallowed entire, the hinder portion will be bitten off and the anterior part allowed to float away or sink. It is even maintained with great earnestness that such is the glut- tony of the fish, that when the stomach becomes full the con- tents are disgorged and then again filled. It is certain that it kills many more fish than it requires for its own support. "The youngest fish, equally with the older, perform this function of destruction, and although they occasionally devour crabs, worms, etc., the bulk of their sustenance throughout the greater part of the year is derived from other fish. Noth- ing is more common than to find a small bluefish of six or eight inches in length under a school of minnows making continual dashes and captures among them. The stomachs of the blue- 280 Cavallas and Pampanos fish of all sizes, with rare exceptions, are found loaded with the other fish, sometimes to the number of thirty or forty, either entire or in fragments. "As already referred to, it must also be borne in mind that it is not merely the small fry that are thus devoured, and which it is expected will fall a prey to other animals, but that the food of the bluefish consists very largely of individuals which have already passed a large percentage of the chances against their reaching maturity, many of them, indeed, having arrived at the period of spawning. To make the case more clear, let us realize for a moment the number of bluefish that exist on our coast in the summer season. As far as I can ascertain by the statistics obtained at the fishing-stations on the New England coast, as also from the records of the New York markets, kindly furnished by Middleton & Carman, of the Fulton Market, the capture of bluefish from New Jersey to Monomoy during the season amounts to no less than one million individuals, aver- aging five or six pounds each. Those, however, who have seen the bluefish in his native waters and realized the immense numbers there existing will be quite willing to admit that probably not one fish in a thousand is ever taken by man. If, therefore, we have an actual capture of one million, we may allow one thousand millions as occurring in the extent of our coasts referred to, even neglecting the smaller ones, which, perhaps, should also be taken into account. "An allowance of ten fish per day to each bluefish is not excessive, according to the testimony elicited from the fisher- men and substantiated by the stomachs of those examined; this gives ten thousand millions of fish destroyed per day. And as the period of the stay of the bluefish on the New England coast is at least one hundred and twenty days, we have in round numbers twelve hundred million millions of fish devoured in the course of a season. Again, if each bluefish, averaging five pounds, devours or destroys even half its own weight of other fish per day (and I am not sure that the estimate of some witnesses of twice this weight is not more nearly correct), \ve will have, during the same period, a daily loss of twenty-five hundred million pounds, equal to three hundred thousand millions for the season. Cavallas and Pampanos 281 "This estimate applies to three or four year old fish of at least three to five pounds in weight. We must, however, allow for those of smaller size, and a hundred-fold or more in number, all engaged simultaneously in the butchery referred to. "We can scarcely conceive of a number so vast; and how- ever much we may diminish, within reason, the estimate of the number of bluefish and the average of their capture, there still remains an appalling aggregate of destruction. While the smallest bluefish feed upon the diminutive fry, those of which we have taken account capture fish of large size, many of them, if not capable of reproduction, being within at least one or two years of that period. "It is estimated by very good authority that of the spawn deposited by any fish at a given time not more than 30 per cent, are hatched, and that less than 10 per cent, attain an age when they are able to take care of themselves. As their age increases the chances of reaching maturity become greater and greater. It is among the small residuum of this class that the agency of the bluefish is exercised and whatever reasonable reduction may be made in our estimate, we cannot doubt that they exert a material influence. "The rate of growth of the bluefish is also an evidence of the immense amount of food they must consume. The young fish which first appear along the shores of Vineyard Sound, about the middle of August, are about five inches in length. By the beginning of September, however, they have reached six or seven inches, and on their reappearance in the second year they measure about twelve or fifteen inches. After this they increase in a still more rapid ratio. A fish which passes eastward from Vineyard Sound in the spring weighing five pounds is represented, according to the general impression, by the ten- to fifteen-pound fish of the autumn. If this be the fact, the fish of three or four pounds which pass along the coast of North Carolina in March return to it in October weigh- ing ten to fifteen pounds. "As already explained, the relationship of these fish to the other inhabitants of the sea is that of an unmitigated butcher; and it is able to contend successfully with any other species not superior to itself in size. It is not known whether an 282 Cavallas and Pampanos entire school ever unite in an attack upon a particular object of prey, as is said to be the case with the ferocious fishes of the South American rivers ; should they do so, no animal, however large, could withstand their onslaught. "They appear to eat anything that swims of suitable size — fish of all kinds, but perhaps more especially the menhaden, which they seem to follow along the coast, and which they atack with such ferocity as to drive them on the shore, where FIG. 219. — Sergeant-fish, Rachycentron canadum (Linnaeus). Virginia. they are sometimes piled up in windrows to the depth of a foot or more." The Sergeant-fishes: Rachycentridae. — The Rachycentrida \ or sergeant-fishes, are large, strong, swift, voracious shore fishes, with large mouths and small teeth, ranging northward from the warm seas. The dorsal spines are short and stout, separate from the fin, and the body is almost cylindrical, somewhat like that of the pike. Rachycentron canadum, called cobia, crab-eater, snooks, or sergeant-fish, reaches a length of about five feet. The last name is supposed to allude to the black stripe along its side, like the stripe on a sergeant's trousers. It is rather common in summer along our Atlantic coast as far as Cape Cod, espe- cially in Chesapeake Bay. Rachycentron pondicerrianum, equally voracious, extends its summer depredations as far as Japan. The more familiar name for these fishes, Elacate, is of later date than Rachycentron. Mr. Prime thus speaks of the crab-eater as a game-fish: "In shape he may be roughly likened to the great northern pike, with a similar head, flattened on the forehead. He is dark green on the back, growing lighter on the sides, but the Cavailas and Pampanos 283 distinguishing characteristic is a broad, dark collar over the neck, from which two black stripes or straps, parting on the shoulders, extend, one on each side, to the tail. He looks as if harnessed with a pair of traces, and his behavior on a fly-rod is that of a wild horse. The first one that I struck, in the brackish water of Hillsborough River at Tampa, gave me a hitherto unknown sensation. The tremendous rush was not unfamiliar, but when the fierce fellow took the top of the water and went along lashing it with his tail, swift as a bullet, then descended, and with a short, sharp, electric shock left the line to come home free, I was for an instant confounded. It was all over in ten seconds. Nearly every fish that I struck after this behaved in the same way, and after I had got 'the hang of them ' I took a great many.5' The Butter-fishes: Stromateidae. — The butter-fishes (Stroma- teida] form a large group of small fishes with short, compressed bodies, smooth scales, feeble spines, the vertebrae in increased number and especially characterized by the presence of a series of tooth-like processes in the oesophagus behind the pharyn- geals. The ventral fins present in the young are often lost in the process of development. According to Mr. Regan, the pelvic bones are very loosely attached to the shoulder-girdle as in the extinct genera Platy- cormus and Homosoma. This is perhaps a primitive feature, indicating the line of descent of these fishes from berycoid forms. We unite with the Stromateida the groups or families of Centrolophidcs and Nomeidce, knowing no characters by which to separate them. Stromateus fiatola, the fiatola of the Italian fishermen, is an excellent food-fish of the Mediterranean. Poronotus triacan. thus, the harvest-fish, or dollar-fish, of our Atlantic coast, is a common little silvery fish six to ten inches, as bright and almost as round as a dollar. Its tender oily flesh has an excellent flavor. Very similar to it is the poppy-fish (Palometa simillima) of the sandy shores of California, miscalled the "California pampano," valued by the San Francisco epicure, who pays large prices for it supposing it to be pampano, although admit- ting that the pampano in New Orleans has firmer flesh and 284 Cavallas and Pampanos better flavor. The harvest-fish, Peprilus paru, frequently taken on our Atlantic coast, is known by its very high fins. FIG. 220. — Harvest-fish, Peprilus paru (Linnaeus). Virginia. Stromateoides argenteus, a much larger fish than any of these, is a very important species on the coasts of China. Psenopsis anomala takes the place of our butter-fishes in Japan, and much resembles them in appearance as in flavor. To the Stromateida we also refer the black ruff of Europe, Centrolophus niger, an interesting deep-sea fish rarely straying to our coast. Allied to it is the black rudder-fish, Palinurich- thys perciformis, common on the Massachusetts coast, where it is of some value as a food-fish. A specimen in a live-box once drifted to the coast of Cornwall, where it was taken unin- jured, though doubtless hungry. Other species of ruff- and rudder-fish are recorded from various coasts. Allied to the Stromateidce are numerous fossil forms. Omo- soma sachelalmce and other species . occur in the Cretaceous at Mount Lebanon. Platycormus germanus, with ctenoid scales Cavallas and Pampanos 285 resembling a berycoid, but with the ventral rays I, 5, occurs in the Upper Cretaceous. Closely related to this is Berycopsis elegans, with smoother scales, from the English Chalk. Gobiomorus gronovii (usually called Nomeus gronovii}, the Portuguese man-of-war-fish, is a neat little fish about three inches long, common in the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Stream, where it hides from its enemies among the poisoned tentacles of the Portuguese man-of-war. Under the Portuguese man-of- war and also in or under large jelly-fishes several other species are found, notably Carangus medusicola and Peprilus paru. Many small species of Psenes, a related genus, also abound in the warm currents from tropical seas. The Rag-fishes : Icosteidae. — Allied to the butter-fishes are the deep-water Icosteidce, fishes of soft, limp bodies as unre- sistent as a wet rag, Icosteus cenigmaticus of the California coast being known as ragfish. Schedophilus medusophagus feeds on medusae and salpa, living on the surface in the deep seas. Mr. Ogilby thus speaks of a specimen taken in Ireland: "It was the most delicate adult fish I ever handled; within twenty-four hours after its capture the skin of the belly and the intestines fell off when it was lifted, and it felt in the hand quite soft and boneless." A related species (S. heathi) has been lately taken by Dr. Charles H. Gilbert at Monterey in California. The family of Acrotidtz contains a single species of large size. Acrotus willoughbyi, allied to Icosteus, but without ventral fins and with the vertebras very numerous. The type, five and one- FIG. 221. — Portuguese Man-of-war Fish, Gobiomorus gronovii. Family Stromateidce. 286 Cavallas and Pampanos quarter feet long, was thrown by a storm on the coast of Wash- ington, near the Quinnault agency. The family of Zaprorida contains also a single large species, Zaprora silenus, without ventrals, but scaly and firm in sub- stance. One specimen i\ feet long was taken at Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and a smaller one at Victoria. The Pomfrets: Bramidae. — The Bramidoz are broad-bodied fishes of the open seas, covered with firm adherent scales. The flesh is firm and the skeleton heavy, the hypercoracoid espe- cially much dilated. Of the various species the pomfret, or black bream (Brama rail), is the best known and most widely diffused. It reaches a length of two to four feet and is sooty black in color. It is not rare in Europe and has been occasionally taken at Grand Bank off Newfoundland, at the Bermudas, off the coast of Washington, on Santa Catalina Island, and in Japan. It is an excellent food-fish, but is seldom seen unless driven ashore by storms. Steinegeria rubescens of the Gulf of Mexico is a little-known deep-sea fish allied to Brama, but placed by Jordan and Ever- mann in a distinct family, Steinegeriidce. Closely related to the Bramidcs is the small family of Ptera- clidce, silvery fishes with large firm scales, living near the sur- face in the ocean currents. In these fishes the ventral fins are placed well forward, fairly to be called jugular, and the rays of the dorsal and anal, all inarticulate or spine-like, are excessively prolonged. The species, none of them well known, are referred to four genera — Pteraclis, Bentenia, Centropholis, and Velifer. They are occasionally taken in ocean currents, chiefly about Japan and Madeira. Fossil forms more or less remotely allied to the Bramidce are recorded from the Eocene and Miocene. Among these are Acan- thonemus, and perhaps Pseudovomer. The Dolphins: Coryphaenidae. — The dolphins, or dorados (Coryph&nidce) , are large, swift sea-fishes, with elongate, com- pressed bodies, elevated heads, sharp like the cut-water of a boat, and with the caudal fin very strong. The long dorsal fin, elevated like a crest on the head, is without spines. The high forehead characteristic of the dolphin is developed only in the adult male. The flesh of the dolphin is valued as food. Cavallas and Pampanos 287 Its colors, golden-blue with deep-blue spots, fade rapidly at death, though the extent of this change has been much exag- gerated. Similar changes of color occur at death in most bright- colored fishes, especially in those with thin scales. The common dolphin, or dorado (Coryphana hippurus), is found in all warm FIG. 222. — Dolphin or Dorado, Coryphcena hippurus Linnaeus. New York. seas swimming near the surface, as usual in predatory fishes, and reaches a length of about six feet. The small dolphin, Coryphcena equisetis, rarely exceeds 2\ feet, and is much more rare than the preceding, from which the smaller number of dorsal rays (53 instead of 60) best distinguishes it. Young dolphins of both species are elongate in form, the crest of the head not elevated, the physiognomy thus appearing very differ- ent from that of the adult. Goniognathus coryph&noides is an extinct dolphin of the Eocene. The name dolphin, belonging properly to a group of small whales or porpoises, the genus Delphinus, has been unfortu- nately used in connection with this very different animal, which bears no resemblance to the mammal of the same name. Other mackerel-like families not closely related to these occur in the warm seas. The Leiognathida are small, silvery fishes of the East Indies. Leiognathus argentatus (Equula) is very common in the bays of Japan, a small silvery fish of mod- erate value as food. Gazza minuta, similar, with strong teeth, abounds farther south. Leiognathus fasciatum is common in Polynesia. A fossil species called Parequula albyi occurs in the Miocene of Licata. The Kurtida are small, short-bodied fishes of the Indian seas, with some of the ribs immovably fixed between rings 288 Cavallas and Pampanos formed by the ossified cover of the air-bladder and with the hypocoracoid obsolete. Kurtus indicus is the principal species. The Menidae. — Near the Kurtidcz we may perhaps place the family of Menida, of one species, Mene maculata, the moon -fish of the open seas of the East Indies and Japan. This is a small fish, about a foot long, with the body very closely compressed, the fins low and the belly, through the extension of the pelvic bone, a good deal more prominent than the back. The ventral \ FIG. 223. — Mene maculata (Bloch & Schneider). Family Menidae. Japan. fins have the usual number of one spine and five soft rays, a character which separates Mene widely from Lampris, which in some ways seems allied to it. Another species of Menidcs is the extinct G aster onemus rhombeus of the Eocene of Monte Bolca. It has much the same form, with long pubic bones. The very long ventral fins are, however, made of one spine and one or two lays. A second species, Gasteronemus oblongus, is recorded from the same rocks. The Pempheridse. — The Pempherida, "deep-water catalufas," or "magifi, " are rather small deep-bodied fishes, reddish in color, with very short dorsal, containing a few graduated spines, Cavallas and Pampanos 289 and with a very long anal fin. These inhabit tropical seas at moderate depths. Pempheris bears a superficial resemblance to FIG. 224. — Gasteronemus rhombeus Agassiz. (After Woodward.) Menidae. Beryx, but, according to Starks, this resemblance is not borne out by the anatomy. Pempheris mulleri and P. poeyi are found FIG. 225. — Catalufa de lo Alto, Pempheris mulleri Poey. Havana. in the West Indies. Pempheris otaitensis and P. mangula range through Polynesia, n — 19 290 Cavallas and Pampanos Very close to the Pempherida is the small family of Bathy- tlupeicke. These are herring-like fishes, much compressed and Fia. 226. — Pempheris nyctereutes Jordan & Evermann. Giran, Formosa. with a duct to the air-bladder. There are but one or two dorsal spines. The ventrals are of one spine and five rays as in perch, like fishes, but placed behind the pectoral fins. This feature- due to the shortening of the belly, is regarded by Alcock, the discoverer, as a result of degeneration, and the family was FIG. 227. — The Louvar, Luvarus imperialis Rafinesque. (After Day.) Family Luvaridse. placed by him among the herrings. The persistent air-duct excludes it from the Percesoces, the normally formed ventrals from the Berycoidei. If we trust the indications of the skeleton, Cavallas and Pampanos 291 we must place the family with Pempheris, near the scombroid fishes. Luvaridae. — Another singular family is the group of Louvars, Luvaridcs. Luvaris imperialis. The single known species is a large, plump, voracious fish, with the dorsal and anal rays all un- branched, and the scales scurf-life over the smooth skin. It is frequently taken in the Mediterranean, and was found on the island of Santa Catalina, California, by Mr. C. F. Holden. The Square-tails: Tetragonuridae. — The Tetragonurida are long- bodied fishes of a plump or almost squarish form, covered with hard, firm, very adherent scales. Tetragonurus cuvieri, the single species, called square-tail, or escolar de natura, is a curious fish, looking as if whittled out of wood, covered with a compact armor of bony scales, and swimming very slowly in deep water. It is known from the open Atlantic and Medi- terranean and has been once taken at Wood's Hole in Massa- chusetts. According to Mr. C. T. Regan the relations of this eccentric fish are with the Stromateidce and Bramidce, the skele- ton being essentially that of Stromateus, and Boulenger places both Tetragonurus and Stromateus among the Percesoces. The Crested Band-fishes: Lophotidae. — The family of Lopho- tidoz consists of a few species of deep-sea fishes, band-shaped, naked, with the dorsal of flexible spines beginning as a high crest on the elevated occiput. The first spine is very strong. The ventrals are thoracic with the normal number, I, 5, of fin- rays. Lophotes cepedianus, the crested bandfish, is occasionally taken in the Mediterranean in rather deep water. Lophotes capellei is rarely taken in the deep waters of Japan. It is thought that the Lophotida may be related to the ribbon-fishes, Taniosomi, but on the whole they seem nearer to the highly modified Scombroidei, the Pteraclidcs for example. In a natural arrangement, we should turn from the Brami- d> I 306 Percoidea, or Perch-like Fishes gate in body, with the vertebrae in increased number and with only two spines in the anal fin. About ninety species are recorded, the vast majority being American. The dwarf perches, called darters (Etheostomince) , are especially characteristic of the clear streams to the eastward of the plains of the Missouri. These constitute one of the greatest attractions of our American river fauna. They differ from the perch and its European allies in their small size, bright colors, and large fins, and more technic- ally in the rudimentary condition of the pseudobranchiae and the air-bladder, both of which organs are almost inappreciable. The preopercle is unarmed, and the number of the branchioste- gals is six. The anal papilla is likewise developed, as in the GobiidcB, to which group the darters bear a considerable super- ficial resemblance, which, however, indicates no real affinity. Relations of Darters to Perches. — The colors of the Ethe- ostomincz, or darters, are usually very brilliant, species of Etheostoma especially being among the most brilliantly colored fishes known; the sexual differences are often great, the females being, as a rule, dull in color and more speckled or barred than the males. Most of them prefer clear running water, where they lie on the bottom concealed under stones, darting, when frightened or hungry, with great velocity for a short distance, by a powerful movement of the fan-shaped pectorals, then stopping as suddenly. They rarely use the caudal fin in swim- ming, and they are seldom seen floating or moving freely in the water like most fishes. When at rest they support them- selves on their expanded ventrals and anal fin. All of them can turn the head from side to side, and they frequently lie with the head in a curved position or partly on one side of the body. The species of Ammocrypta, and perhaps some of the others, prefer a sandy bottom, where, by a sudden plunge, the fish buries itself in the sand, and remains quiescent for hours at a time with only its eyes and snout visible. The others lurk in stony places, under rocks and weeds. Although more than usually tenacious of vitality, the darters, from their bottom life, are the first to be disturbed by impurities in the water. All the darters are carnivorous, feeding chiefly on the larvae of Diptera, and in their way voracious. All are of small size; the largest (Percina rex} reaches a length of ten inches, Percoidea, or Perce-like Fishes 307 while the smallest (Microperca punctulata) is, one of the small- est spiny-rayed fishes known, barely attaining the length of an inch and a half. In Europe no Etheostomince are found, their place being filled by the genera Zingel and Aspro, which bear a strong resemblance to the American forms, a resemblance which may be a clew to the origin of the latter. The Perches. — The European perch, Perca fluviatilis, is placed by Cuvier at the head of the fish series, as representing in a high degree the traits of a fish without sign of incomplete development on the one hand or of degradation on the other. Doubtless the increased number of the vertebrae is the chief character which would lead us to call in question this time- honored arrangement. Because, however, the perch has a relatively degenerate vertebrate column, we have used an allied form, the striped bass, as a fairer type of the perfected spiny- rayed fish. Certainly the bass represents this type better than the perch. But though we may regard the perch as nearest the typically perfect fish, it is far from being one of the most highly specialized, for, as we have seen in several cases, a high degree of speciali- zation of a particular structure is a first step toward its degra- dation. The perch of Europe is a common game-fish of the rivers. The yellow perch of America (Perca ftavescens) is very much like it, a little brighter in color, olive and golden with dusky cross-bands. It frequents quiet streams and ponds from Min- nesota eastward, then southward east of the Alleghanies. "As a still-pond fish," says Dr. Charles Conrad Abbott, "if there is a fair supply of spring-water, they thrive excellently; but the largest specimens come either from the river or from the inflow- ing creeks. Deep water of the temperature of ordinary spring- water, with some current and the bed of the stream at least partly covered with vegetation, best suits this fish." The perch is a food-fish of moderate quality. In spite of its beauty and gaminess, it is little sought for by our anglers, and is much less valued with us than is the European perch in England. But Dr. Goode ventures to prophesy that "before many years the perch will have as many followers as the black bass among those who fish for pleasure" in the region it inhabits. "A 308 Percoidea, or Perch-like Fishes fish for the people it is, we will grant, and it is the anglers from among the people who have neither time nor patience for long trips nor complicated tackle who will prove its steadfast friends." The boy values it; according to Thoreau. When he returns from the mill-pond, he numbers his perch as "real fishes." " So many unquestionable fish he counts, and so many chubs, which he counts, then throws away." In the perch, the oral valves, characteristic of all bony fishes, are well developed. These structures recently investigated by FIG. 240. — Yellow Perch, Perca flavescens Mitchill. Potomac River. Evelyn G. Mitchill, form a fold of connective tissue just behind the premaxillary and before the vomer. They are used in respi- ration, preventing the forward flow of water as the mouth closes. Several perch-like fishes are recorded as fossils from the Miocene. Allied to the perch, but long, slender, big-mouthed, and voracious, is the group of pike perches, found in eastern America and Europe. The wall-eye, or glass-eye (Stizostedion vitreum), is the largest of this tribe, reaching a weight of ten to twenty pounds. It is found throughout the region east of the Mis- souri in the large streams and ponds, an excellent food-fish, with white, flaky flesh and in the north a game fish of high rank. The common names refer to the large glassy eye, con- cerning which Dr. Goode quotes from some "ardent admirer" these words: "Look at this beautiful fish, as symmetrical in form as the salmon. Not a fault in his make-up, not a scale Percoidea, or Perch-like Fishes 3°9 disturbed, every fin perfect, tail clean-cut, and his great, big wall-eyes stand out with that life-like glare so characteristic of the fish." Similar to the wall-eye, but much smaller and more trans- lucent in color, is the sauger, or sand-pike, of the Great Lakes and FIG. 241. — Sauger, Stizostedion canadense (Smith). Ecorse, Mich Northern rivers, Stizostedion canadense. This fish rarely exceeds fifteen inches in length, and as a food-fish it is of correspond- ingly less importance. The pike-perch, or zander, of central Europe, Centropomus (or Sandrus} lucioperca, is an excellent game-fish, similar to Fia. 242. — The Aspron, Aspro asper (Linnaeus). Rhone River. (After Seelye.) Family Percidce. the sauger, but larger, characterized technically by having the ventral fins closer together. Another species, Centropomus vol- gensis, in Russia, looks more like a perch than the other species do. Sandroserrus, a fossil pike-perch, occurs in the Pliocene. Another European fish related to the perch is the river ruff, or pope, Acerina cernua, which is a small fish with the form of a perch and with conspicuous mucous cavities in the skull. It is common throughout the north of Europe 310 Percoidea, or Perch-like Fishes and especially abundant at the confluence of rivers. Gymno- cephalus schrcetzer of the Danube has the head still more cav- ernous. Percarina demidofft of southern Russia is another dainty little fish of the general type of the perch. A fossil genus of this type called Smerdis is numerously represented in the Miocene and later rocks. The aspron, Aspro asper, is a species like a darter found lying on the bottoms of swift rivers, especially the Rhone. The body is elongate, with the paired fins highly developed. Zingel zingel is found in the Danube, as is also a third species called Aspro streber. In form and coloration these species greatly resemble the American darters, and the genus Zingel is, perhaps, the ancestor of the entire group. Zingel differs from Percina mainly in having seven instead of six branchiostegals and the pseudobranchiae better FIG. 243. — The Zingel, Zingel zingel (Linnaeus). Danube River. (After Seelye.) developed. The differences in these and other regards which distinguish the darters are features of degradation, and they are also no doubt of relatively recent acquisition. To this fact we may ascribe the difficulty in finding good generic char- acters within the group. Sharply defined genera occur where the intervening types are lost. The darter is one of the very latest products in the evolution of fishes. The Darters: Etheostominae. — Of the darters, or etheosto- mine perches, over fifty species are known, all confined to the streams of the region bounded by Quebec, Assiniboia, Colo- rado, and Nuevo Leon. All are small fishes and some of them minute, and some are the most brilliantly colored of all fresh- water fishes of any region, the most ornate belonging to the large genus called Etheostoma. The largest species, the most primitive because most like the perch, belong to the genus Percina. Percoidea, or Perch-like Fishes 311 First among the darters because largest in size, most perch- like in structure, and least degenerate, we place the king darter, Percina rex of the Roanoke River in Virginia. This species reaches a length of six inches, is handsomely colored, and looks like a young wall-eye. The log-perch, Percina caprodes, is near to this, but a little smaller, with the body surrounded by black rings alternately FIG. 244. — Log-perch, Percina caprodes (Rafinesque). Licking Co., Ohio. large and small. In this widely distributed species, large enough to take the hook, the air-bladder is present although small. In the smaller species it vanishes by degrees, and in proportion as in their habits they cling to the bottom of the stream. The genus Hadropterus includes many handsome species, most of them with a black lateral band widened at intervals. Fia. 245. — Black-sided Darter, Hadropterus aspro (Cope & Jordan). Chickamauga River. The black-sided darter, Hadropterus aspro, is the best-known species and one of the most elegant of all fishes, abounding in the clear gravelly streams of the Ohio basin and northwestward. Hadropterus evides of the Ohio region is still more brilliant, 312 Percoidea, or Perch-like Fishes with alternate bands of dark blue-green and orange-red, most exquisite in their arrangement. In the South, Hadropterus nigrofasciatus, the crawl-a-bottom of the Georgia rivers, is a heavily built darter, which Vaillant has considered the ances- tral species of the group. Still more swift in movement and bright in color are the species of Hypohomus, which flash their showy hues in the sparkling brooks of the Ozark and the Great Smoky Mountains. Hypohomus aurantiacus is the best-known species. Diplesion blennioides, the green-sided darter, is the type of numerous species with short heads, large fins, and coloration FIG. 246. — Green-sided Darter Diplesion blennioides Rafinesque Clinch River. Family Perddas. of speckled green and golden. It abounds in the streams of the Ohio Valley. The tessellated darters, Boleosoma, are the most plainly colored of the group and among the smallest; yet in the Fio. 247. — Tessellated Darter, Boleosoma olmstedi (Storer). Potomac River. delicacy, wariness, and quaintness of motion they are among the most interesting, especially in the aquarium. Boleosoma Percoidea, or Perch-like Fishes 3*3 nigrum, the Johnny darter in the West, and Boleosoma olmstedi in the East are among the commonest species, found half hid- den in the weeds of small brooks, and showing no bright colors, although the male in the spring has the head, and often the whole body, jet black. Crystallaria asprella, a large species almost transparent, is occasionally taken in swift currents along the limestone FIG. 248. — Crystal Darter, Crystallaria asprella (Jordan). Wabash River. banks of the Mississippi. Still more transparent is the small sand-darter, Ammocrypta pellucida, which lives in the clearest of waters, concealing itself by plunging into the sand. Its scales are scantily developed, as befits a fish that chooses this FIG. 249. — Sand-darter, Ammocrypta clara (Jordan & Meek). Des Moines River. method of protection, and in the related Ammocrypta beani of the streams of the Louisiana pine-woods, the body is almost naked, as also in loa vitrea, the glassy darter of the pine-woods of North Carolina. In the other darters the body is more compressed, the move- ments less active, the coloration even more brilliant in the males, which are far more showy than their dull olivaceous mates. To Etheostoma nearly half of the species belong, and -they 3'4 Percoidea, or Perch-like Fishes form indeed a royal series of little fishes. Only a few can be noticed here, but all of them are described in detail and many FIG. 250. — Etheostoma jordani Gilbert. Chestnut Creek, Verbena, Ala. are figured by Jordan and Evermann (" Fishes of North and Middle America," Vol. I). Most beautiful of all fresh-water fishes is the blue-breasted darter, Etheostoma camurum, red-blue and olive, with red spots, FIG. 251. — Blue-breasted Darter, Etheostoma camurum (Cope).the most brilliantly colored of American river fishes. Cumberland Gap, Term. like a trout. This species lives in clear streams of the Ohio valley, a region perhaps to be regarded as the center of abun- dance of these fishes. Very similar is the trout-spotted darter, Etheostoma macu- latum, dusky and red, with round crimson spots. Etheostoma rufilineatum of the French Broad is one of the most gaudy of fishes. Etheostoma australe of Chihuahua ranges farthest south of all the darters, and Etheostoma boreale of Quebec perhaps farthest north, though Etheostoma iowa, found from Iowa to the Saskatchewan, may dispute this honor. Etheostoma caruleum, Percoidea, or Perch-like Fishes 3 1 5 the rainbow darter or soldier-fish, with alternate oblique bands of blue and scarlet, is doubtless the most familiar of the bril- liantly colored species, as it is the most abundant throughout the Ohio valley. Etheostoma flabellare, the fan-tailed darter, discovered by Rafinesque in Kentucky in 1817, was the first species of the series made known to science. It has no bright colors, but its move- ments in water are more active than any of the others, and it is the most hardy in the aquarium. Psychromaster tuscumbia abounds in the great limestone springs of northern Alabama, while Copelandellus quiescens swarms in the black-water brooks which flow into the Dismal Swamp and thence southward to the Suwanee. It is a little fish not very active, its range going farther into the southern lowlands than any other. Finally, Microperca punctulata, the least darter, is the smallest of all, with fewest spines and dullest colors, must specialized in the sense of being least primitive, but at the same time the most degraded of all the darters. No fossil forms nearly allied to the darters are on record. The nearest is perhaps Mioplosus labracoides from the Eocene at Green River, Wyoming. This elongate fish, a foot long, has the dorsal rays IX-i, 13, and the anal rays II, 13, its scales finely serrated, and the preopercle coarsely serrated on the lower limb only. This species, with its numerous congeners from the Rocky Mountain Eocene, is nearer the true perch than the darters. Several species related to Perca are also recorded from the Eocene of England and Germany. A species called Lucioperca skorpili, allied to Centropomus, is described from the Oligocene of Bulgaria, besides several other forms imper- fectly preserved, of still more doubtful affinities. CHAPTER XIX THE BASS AND THEIR RELATIVES HE Cardinal-fishes. Apogonidae. — The Apogonida or car- dinal-fishes are perch-like fishes, mostly of small size, with two distinct short dorsal fins. They are found in the warm seas, and many of them enter rivers, some even in- habiting hot springs. Many of the shore species are bright red in color, usually with black stripes, bands, or spots. Still others, however, are olive or silvery, and a few in deeper water are violet-black. The species of Apogon are especially numerous, and in regions where they are abundant, as in Japan, they are much FIG. 252. — Cardinal-fish, Apogon retrosetta Gill. Mazatlan. valued as food. Apogon imberbis, the "king of the mullet," is a common red species of southern Europe. Apogon maculatus is found in the West Indies. Apogon retrosella is the pretty "cardenal" of the west coast of Mexico. Apogon lineatus, 316 The Bass and their Relatives 317 semilineatus and other species abound in Japan, and many species occur about the islands of Polynesia. Epigonus tele- scopium is a deep-sea fish of the Mediterranean and Telescopias and Synagrops are genera of the depths of the Pacific. Pa- ramia with strong canines is allied to Apogon, and similar in color and habit. Allied to Apogon are several small groups often taken as distinct families. The species of Ambassis (Ambassida) are little fishes of the rivers and bays of India and Polynesia, resembling small silvery perch or bass. All these have three anal spines instead of two as in Apogon. Some of these enter rivers and several are recorded from hot springs. Scombrops boops, the mutsu of Japan, is a valued food-fish found in rather deep water. It is remarkable for its very strong teeth, although its flesh is feeble and easily torn. A still larger species in Cuba, Scombrops oculata, known as Escolar chino, resembles a barra- cuda. These fishes with fragile bodies and very strong teeth are placed by Gill in a separate family (Scombropida) . Acro- poma japonicum is a neat little fish of the Japanese coast, with the vent placed farther forward than in Apogon. It is the type of the Acropomidcs, a small family of the Pacific. Eno- plosus armatus is an Australian fish with high back and fins, with a rather stately appearance, type of the Enoplosidce. In his last catalogue of families of fishes Dr. Gill recognizes Scom- bropidcB and Acropomidcs as distinct families, but their relation- ships with Apogon are certainly very close. Many genera allied to Apogon and Ambassis occur in Australian rivers. Several fossils referred to Apogon (Apogon spinosus, etc.) occur in the Eocene of Italy and Germany. The Anomalopidae. — The family of Anomalopidce is a small group of deep-sea fishes of uncertain relationship, but per- haps remotely related to Apogon. Anomalops palpebrata is found in Polynesia and has beneath the eye a large luminous organ unlike anything seen elsewhere among fishes. The Asineopidse. — Another family of doubtful relationship is that of AsineopidcB, elsewhere noticed. It is composed of extinct fresh-water fishes found in the Green River shales. In Asineops squamifrons the opercles are unarmed, the teeth villiform, and the dorsal fin undivided, composed of eight or The Bass and their Relatives 3 1 9 nine spines and twelve to fourteen soft rays. The anal spines, as in Apogon, are two only, and the scales are cycloid. FIG. 254. — Apogon semilineatus Schlegel. MLsaki, Japan. The Robalos : * Oxylabracidae. — The family of Robalos (Oxy- labracida or Centropomida) is closely related to the Serramda, differing among other things in having the conspicuous lateral line extended on the caudal fin. These are silvery fishes with FIG. 255. — Robalo, Oxylabrax undecimalis (Bloch). Florida. elongate bodies, large scales, a pike-like appearance, the first dorsal composed of strong spines and the second spine of the * The European zander is the type of Lacepede's genus Centropomus. The name Ccntropomus has been wrongly transferred to the robalo by most authors. 320 The Bass and their Relatives anal especially large. They are found in tropical America only, where they are highly valued as food, the flesh being like that of the striped bass, white, flaky, and of fine flavor. The common robalo, or snook, Oxylabrax (or Centropomus) un- decimalis, reaches a weight of fifteen to twenty pounds. It ranges north as far as Texas. In this species the lateral line is black. The smaller species, of which several are described, are known as Robalito or Constantino. The Sea-bass: Serranidae. — The central family of the percoid fishes is that of the Serranidce, or sea-bass. Of these about 400 species are recorded, carnivorous fishes found in all warm seas, a few ascending the fresh waters. In general, the species are characterized by the presence of twenty-four vertebra and three anal spines, never more than three. The fresh-water species are all more or less archaic and show traits suggesting the Oxylabracida, Percida, or Centrar chides, all of which are doubtless derived from ancestors of Serranidce. Among the connecting forms are the perch-like genera Percichthys and Percilia of the rivers of Chile. These species look much like perch, but have three anal spines, the number of vertebrae being thirty-five. Percichthys trucha is the common trucha, or trout, of Chilean waters. Lateolabrax japon-icus, the susuki, or bass, of Japan, is one of the most valued food-fishes of the Orient, similar in quality to the robalo, which it much resembles. This genus and the East Indian Centrogenys waigiensis approach Oxylabrax in appearance and structure. Niphon spinosus, the ara of Japan, is a very large sea-bass, also of this type. Close to these bass, marine and fresh water, are the Chinese genus Siniperca and the Korean genus Coreoperca, several species of which abound in Oriental rivers. In southern Japan is the rare Bryttosus kawamebari, a bass in structure, but very closely resembling the American sunfish, even to the presence of the bright-edged black ear-spot. There is reason to believe that from some such form the Centrarchidce were derived. Other bass-like fishes occur in Egypt (Lates], Australia (Percalates, etc.), and southern Africa. Oligorus macquariensis is the great cod of the Australian rivers and Ctenolates ambiguus is the yellow belly, while Percalates colonomm is everywhere The Bass and their Relatives 321 the "perch" in Australian rivers. The most important mem- ber of these transitional types between perch and sea-bass is the striped bass, or rockfish (Roccus lineatus), of the Atlantic coast of the United States. This large fish, reaching in extreme cases a weight of 1 1 2 pounds, lives in shallow waters in the sea and ascends the rivers in spring to spawn. It is olivaceous in color, the sides golden silvery, with narrow black stripes. About 1880 it was introduced by the United States Fish Commission into the Sacramento, where it is now very abundant and a fish of large commercial importance. To the angler the striped bass is always "a gallant fish and a bold biter," and Genio Scott places it first among the game-fishes of America. The white bass (Roccus chrysops] is very similar to it, but shorter and more compressed, reaching a smaller size. This fish is abundant in the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi as far south as Arkansas. The yellow bass (Morone interrupta), a coarser and more brassy fish, replaces it farther south. It is seldom seen above Cincinnati and St. Louis. The white perch (Morone ameri- cana) is a little fish of the Atlantic seaboard, entering the sea, but running up all the rivers, remaining contentedly land- locked in ponds. It is one of the most characteristic fishes of the coast from Nova Scotia to Virginia. It is a good pan fish, takes the hook vigorously, and in a modest way deserves the good-will of the angler who cannot stray far into the moun- tains. Very close to these American bass is the bass, bars, or robalo, of southern Europe, Dicentrarchus labraXj a large olive- colored fish, excellent as food, living in the sea about the mouths of rivers. The Jewfishes. — In the warm seas are certain bass of immense size, reaching a length of six feet or more, and being robust in form, a weight of 500 or 600 pounds. These are dusky green in color, thick-headed, rough-scaled, with low fins, vora- cious disposition, and sluggish movements. In almost all parts of the world these great bass are called jewfish, but no reason for this name has ever been suggested. In habit and value the species are much alike, and the jewfish of California, Stereolepis gigas, the prize of the Santa Catalina anglers, may be taken as the type of them all. Closely related II — 21 2 2 ol The Bass and their Relatives 323 to this is the Japanese ishinagi, Megaperca ischinagi, the jew- flsh, or stone-bass, of Japan. Another Japanese jewfish is the Abura bodzu, or "fat priest," Ebisus sagamius. In the West Indies, as also on the west coast of Mexico, the jewfish, or guasa, is Promicrops itaiara. The black grouper, Garrupa nigrita, is the jewfish of Florida. The European jewfish, more often called wreckfish, or stone-bass, is Polyprion americanus, and the equally large Polyprion oxygeneios is found in Australia, as is also another jewfish, Glaucosoma hebraicum, the last belonging to the Lutianida. Largest of all these jewfishes is Promicrops lanceolata of the South Pacific. This huge bass, FIG. 257. — Florida Jewfish, Promicrops itaiara (Lichtenstein). St. John's River, Fla. according to Dr. Boulenger, sometimes reaches a length of twelve feet. Related to the jewfishes are numerous smaller fishes. One of these, the Spanish-flag of Cuba, Gonioplectrus hispanus, is rose-colored, with golden bands like the flag of Spain itself. Other species referred to Acanthistius and Plectropoma have, like this, hooked spines on the lower border of the preopercle. The Groupers. — In all warm seas abound species of Epinephelus and related genera, known as sea-bass, groupers, or merous. They are mostly large voracious fishes with small scales, pale flesh of fair quality, and from their abundance they are of large commercial importance. To English-speaking people these fishes are usually known as grouper, a corruption of the Portuguese name garrupa. In the West Indies and about Panama there are very many species, and still others abound in the Mediter- 324 The Bass and their Relatives ranean, in southern Japan, and throughout Polynesia and the West Indies. They have very much in common, but differ in size and color, some being bright red, some gaudily spotted with red or blue, but most of them are merely mottled green or brown. In many cases individuals living near shore are olivaceous, and those of the same species in the depths are bright crimson or scarlet. We name below a few of the most prominent species. Even a bare list of all of them would take FIG. 258. — Epinephelus striatus (Bloch), Nassau Grouper: Cherna criolla. Family Serranidce. many pages. Cephalopholis cruentatus, the red hind of the Florida Keys, is one of the smallest and brightest of all of them. Cephalopholis fulvus, the blue-spotted guativere of the Cubans, is called negro-fish, butter-fish, yellow-fish, or redfish, accord- ing to its color, which varies with the depth. It is red, yellow, or olive, with many round blue spots. Epinephelus adscen- scionis, the rock-hind, is spotted everywhere with orange. Epinephelus guaza is the merou, or giant-bass, of Europe, a large food-fish of value, rather dull in color. Epinephelus striatus is the Nassau grouper, or Cherna criolla, common in the West Indies. Epinephelus maculosus is the cabrilla of Cuba. Epi- nephelus drummond-hayi, the speckled hind, umber brown, spotted with lavender, is one of the handsomest of all the groupers. Epinephelus morio, the red grouper, is the commonest of all these fishes in the American markets. In Asia the species are equally numerous, Epinephelus quernus of Hawaii and the red Epinephelus fasciatus of Japan and southward being food- The Bass and their Relatives 325 fishes of importance. Epinephelus merra, Epinephelus gilberti, and Epinephelus tauvina are among the more common spe- cies of Polynesia. Epinephelus corallicola, a species profusely FIG. 259. — John Paw or Speckled Hind, Epinephelus drummond-hayi Goode Pensacola. spotted, abounds in the crevices of coral reefs, while Ceph- olopholis argus and C. leopardus are showy fishes of the deeper channels. Mycteroperca venenosa, the yellow-finned grouper, is a large and handsome fish of the coast of Cuba, the flesh sometimes poisonous; when red in deep water it is known as FIG. 260. — Epinephelus morio (Cuvier & Valenciennes), Red Grouper, or Mero. Family Serranidce the bonaci cardenal. Mycteroperca bonaci; the bonaci arara sells in our markets as black grouper. Mycteroperca microlepis tf o •e I — o •3 1 t a -2 The Bass and their Relatives 327 is commonest along our South Atlantic coast, not reaching the West Indies, and Mycteroperca rubra, which is never red, enters the Mediterranean. Mycteroperca falcata is known in the markets as scamp, and Mycteroperca venadorum is a giant species from the Venados Islands, near Mazatlan. Diploprion bifasciatus is a handsome grouper-like fish with two black cross-bands, found in Japan and India. Variola louti, red, with crimson spots and a forked caudal fin, is one of the most showy fishes of the equatorial Pacific. FIG. 262. — Yellow-fin Groupor, Mycteroperca renenosa (Linnaeus). Havana. The small fishes called Vaca in Cuba belong to the genus Hypoplectrus. Their extraordinary and unexplained variations in color have been noticed on page 235, Vol. I. The common species — blue, orange, green, plain, striated, checkered, or striped — bears the name of Hypoplectrus unicolor. (Fig. 264). The Serranos. — In all the species known as jewfish and grouper, as also in the Oxylabracida and most Centrarchidce, the maxillary bone is divided by a lengthwise suture which sets off a distinct supplemental maxillary. This bone is want- ing in the remaining species of Serranidcz, as it is also in those forms already noticed which are familiarly known as bass. The species without the supplemental maxillary are in general smaller in size, the canines are on the sides of the jaws instead of in front, and there are none of the hinged depressible teeth which are conspicuous in the groupers. The species are abundant in the Atlantic, but scarcely any are found in Polynesia, and few in Japan or India. 328 The Bass and their Relatives Serranus cabrilla is the Cabrilla of the Mediterranean, a well-known and excellent food-fish, the original type of the family of Serranida. Serranellus scriba is the serran, a very pretty shore-fish of southern Europe, longer known than any other of the tribe. On the coast of southern California are also species called Cabrillas, fine, large, food-fish, bass-like in form, Paralabrax dathratus, and other less common species. The Cabrillas and their relatives are almost all American, a few straying across to Europe. One of the most important in the number is the black sea-bass, or black will, of our Atlantic FIG. 263. — Hypoplectrus unicolor nigricans (Poey). Tortugas, Fla. coast, Centropristes striatus. This is a common food- and game-fish, dusky in color, gamy, and of fine flesh. The squirrel- fishes (Diplectrum) and the many serranos (Prionodes) of the tropics, small bright-colored fishes of the rocks and reefs, must be passed with a word, as also the small Paracentropristis of the Mediterranean and the fine red creole-fish of the West Indies, Paranthias furcifer. In one species, Anyperodon leuco- grammicus of Polynesia, there are no teeth on the palatines. The barber-fish (Anthias anthias) of southern Europe, bright red and with the lateral line running very high, is the type of a numerous group found at the lowest fishing level in all warm seas. All the species of this group are bright red, very hand- £ « 3 O S. ! O o tg 330 The Bass and their Relatives some, and excellent as food. Hemianthias vivanus, known only from the spewings of the red snapper (Lutianus aya) at Pensacola, is one of the most brilliant species, red, with golden streaks. The genus Pie slops consists of small fishes almost black in color, with blue spots and other markings, abounding about the coral reefs. In this genus the lateral line is inter- rupted and there is some indication of affinity with the Opis- thognathida . In the soapfishes (Rypticus} the supplementa Imaxillary appears again, but in these forms the dorsal fin is reduced to two or three spines and there are none in the anal. Rypticus saponaceus, so called from the smooth or soapy scales, is the FIG. 265. — Soapfish, Rypticus bistrispimis (Mitchill). Virginia. best known of the numerous species, which all belong to trop- ical America. Grammistes, with eight dorsal spines, is a related form in Polynesia, bright yellow, with numerous black stripes. Numerous species referred to the Serranida occur in the Eocene and Miocene rocks. Some are related to Epinephelus, others to Roccus and Lates. In the Tertiary lignite of Brazil is a species of Percichthys, Percichthys antiquus, with Proper ca beaumonti, which seem to be a primitive form of the bass, allied to Dicentrarchus . Prelates heberti of the Cretaceous, one of the earliest of the series, has the caudal rounded and is apparently allied to Lates, as is also the heavily armed Acanus regley- sianus of the Oligocene. Smerdis minutus, a small fish from the Oligocene, is also related to Lates, which genus with Roccus and Dicentrarchus must represent the most primitive of existing members of this family. Of both Smerdis and Dicentrarchus (Labrax) numerous species are recorded, mostly from the~ Mio- cene of Europe. The Bass and their Relatives 331 The Flashers: Lobotidae. — The small family of Lobotida, flash- ers, or triple-tails, closely resembles the Serranida, but there FIG. 266. — Flasher, Lobotes surinamensis (Bloch). Virginia. are no teeth on vomer or palatines. The three species are robust fishes, of a large size, of a dark-green color, the front part of the head very short. They reach a length of about FIG. 267. — Catalufa, Priacanthus arenatus Cuv. & Val Wood's Hole, Mass. three feet and are good food-fishes. Lobotes surinamensis comes northward from the West Indies as far as Cape Cod. £ d u Q >. o 3 1 The Bass and their Relatives 333 Lobotes pacificus is found about Panama. Lobotes erate, com- mon in India, was taken by the writer at Misaki, Japan. The Bigeyes: Priacanthidae. — The Catalufas or bigeyes (Pria- canthidcz) are handsome fishes of the tropics, with short, flattened bodies, rough scales, large eyes, and bright-red color- ation. The mouth is very oblique, and the anal fin about as large as the dorsal. The commonest species is Priacanthus cruentatus, widely diffused through the Pacific and also in the West Indies. This is the noted Aweoweo of the Hawaiians, which used to come into the bays in myriads at the period of death of royalty. It is still abundant, even after Hawaiian royalty has passed away. Pseudopriacanthus altus is a short, very deep-bodied, and very rough fish, scarlet in color, occasionally taken along our coast, driven northward by the Gulf Stream. The young fishes are quite unlike the adult in appearance. Numerous other species of Priacanthus occur in the Indies and Polynesia. The Pentacerotidae. — Another family with strong spines and rough scales is the group of Pentacerotidce. Histiopterus typus, the Matodai, is found in Japan, and is remarkable for its very deep body and very high spines. Equally remarkable is the Tengudai, Histiopterus acutirostris , also Japanese. Anoplus banjos is a third Japanese species, more common than the others, and largely taken in the Inland Sea. All these are eccentric variations from the perch-like type. The Snappers: Lutianidae. — Scarcely less numerous and varied than the sea-bass is the great family of LuHamda, known in America as snappers or pargos. In these fishes the maxillary slips along its edge into a sheath formed by the broad preor- bital. In the Serranida there is no such sheath. In the Luti- anidcc there is no supplemental maxillary, teeth are present on the vomer and palatines, and in the jaws there are distinct canines. These fishes of the warm seas are all carnivorous, voracious, gamy, excellent as food though seldom of fine grain, the flesh being white and not flaky. About 250 species are known, and in all warm seas they are abundant. To the great genus Lutianus most of the species belong. These are the snappers of our markets and the pargos of the Spanish- speaking fishermen. The shore species are green in color, mostly K rt X O The Bass and their Relatives 335 banded, spotted, or streaked. In deeper water bright-red spe- cies are found. One of these, Lutianus aya, the red snapper or pargo guachinango of the Gulf of Mexico, is, economically speaking, the most important of all these fishes in the United States. It is a large, rather coarse fish, bright red in color, and it is taken on long lines on rocky reefs chiefly about Pen- sacola and Tampa in Florida, although similar fisheries exist on the shores of Yucatan and Brazil. A related species is the Lutianus analis, the mutton snapper or pargo criollo of the West Indies. This is one of the staple FIG. 270. — Lutianus apodus (Walbaum), Schoolmaster or Caji. Family Lutianidce. fishes of the Havana market, always in demand for banquets and festivals, because its flesh is never unwholesome. The mangrove snapper, or gray-snapper, Lutianus griseus, called in Cuba, Caballerote, is the commonest species on our coasts. The common name arises from the fact that the young hide in the mangrove bushes of Florida and Cuba, whence they sally out in pursuit of sardines and other small fishes. It is a very wary fish, to be sought with care, hence the name "lawyer," sometimes heard in Florida. The cubero (Lutianus cyanop- terus) is a very large snapper, often rejected as unwholesome, being said to cause the disease known as ciguatera. Certain snappers in Polynesia have a similar reputation. The large red mumea, Lutianus bohar, is regarded as always poisonous in Samoa — the most dangerous fish of the islands. L. leioglossus is 336 The Bass and their Relatives also held under suspicion on Tutuila, though other fishes of this type are regarded as always safe. Other common snappers Fio. 271. — Hoplopagrus guntheri Gill. Mazatlan. of Florida and Cuba are the dog snapper or jocu (Lutianus jocu), the schoolmaster or cajf (Lutianus apodus), the black-fin snapper or sese de lo alto (Lutianus buccanella) , the silk snapper or Fio. 272. — Lane Snapper or Biajaiba, Lutianus synagris (Linnaeus). Key West. pargo de lo alto (Lutianus vivanus), the abundant lane snapper or biajaiba (Lutianus synagris), and the mahogany snapper The Bass and their Relatives 337 or ojanco (Lutianus mahogani). Numerous other species occur on both coasts of tropical America, and a vastly larger assem- blage is found in the East Indies, some of them ranging north- ward to Japan. Hoplopagrus giintheri is a large snapper of the west coast of Mexico, having very large molar teeth in its jaws besides slit • FIG. 273. — Yellow-tail Snapper, Ocyurus chrysurus (Linnaeus). Key West. like nostrils and other notable peculiarities. From the stand- point of structure this species, with its eccentric characters — is especially interesting. The yellow-tail snapper or rabirubia (Ocyurus chrysurus) is a handsome and common fish of the FIG. 274. — Cachucho, Etelis ocuMiis (Linnaeus). Havana. West Indies, with long, deeply forked tail, which makes it a swifter fish than the others. Another red species is the dia- mond snapper or cagon de lo alto, Rhomboplites aurorubens. All these true snappers have the soft fins more or less scaly. II — 22 338 The Bass and their Relatives In certain species that swim more freely in deep waters; these fins are naked. Among them is the Arnillo, Apsilus dentatus, a pretty brown fish of the West Indies, and its a nalogue in Hawaii, Apsilus brighami, red, with golden cross- bands. Aprion virescens, the Uku of Hawaii, is a large fish of a greenish colorand elongate body, widely diffused through- out Polynesia andone of the best of food-fishes. A related species is the red voraz (Aprion macrophthalmus) of the West Indies. Most beautiful of all the group are the species of Etelis, with the dorsal fin deeply divided and the head flattened above. These live in rather deep water about rocky reefs and are fiery red in color. Best known is the Cuban species, Etelis oculatus, the cachucho of the markets. Equally abundant and equally FIG. 275. — Xenocys jessiae Jordan & Bollman. Family Ltttianidae. Galapagos Islands. beautiful is Etelis carbunculus of Polynesia, Etelis evurus of Hawaii, and other species of the Pacific islands. Verilus sordidus, the black escolar of Cuba, has the form of Etelis, but the flesh is very soft and the color violet-black, indicating its life in very deep water. Numerous small silvery snappers living near the shore along the coast of western Mexico belong to the genera called Xenichthys, Xenistius, and Xenocys. Xenistius californiensis is the commonest of these species, Xenocys jessia, the largest in size, with black lines like a striped bass. To the genus Dentex belongs a large snapper-like fish of 34° The Bass and their Relatives the Mediterranean, Dentex dentex. Very many related species occur in the old world, the prettily colored Nemipterus virgatus, the Itoyori of Japan being one of the best known. Another interesting fish is Aphareus furcatus, a handsome, swift fish of the open seas occasionally taken in Japan and the East Indies. Glaucosoma burgeri is a large snapper of Japan, and a related species, Glaucosoma hebraicum, is one of the " jewfishes " of Australia. Numerous fossil forms referred to Dentex occur in the Eocene of Monte Bolca, as also a fish called Ctenodentex lackeniensis from the Eocene of Belgium. The Grunts: Haemulidae. — The large family of Hamulidce, known in America as grunters or roncos, is represented with the FIG. 277. — Grunt, Hcemvlon plumieri (Bloch). Charleston, S. C. snappers in all tropical seas. The common names (Spanish, roncar, to grunt or snore) refer to the noise made either with their large pharyngeal teeth or with the complex air-bladder. These fishes differ from the Lutianintz mainly in the feebler detention, there being no canines and no teeth on the vomer. Most of the American species belong to the genus Hcemulon or red-mouth grunts, so called from the dash of scarlet at the corner of the mouth. H&mulon plumieri, the common grunt, or ronco arard,, is the most abundant species, known by the narrow blue stripes across the head. In the yellow grunt, ronco amarillo (Hcsmulon sciurus), these stripes cross the whole The Bass and their Relatives body. In the margate-fish, or Jallao (Hamulon album], the larg- est of the grunts, there are no stripes at all. Another common grunt is the black spotted sailor's choice, Ronco prieto (Hcemulon parr a), very abundant from Florida southward. Numerous other grunts and "Tom Tates " are found on both shores of Mexico, all the species of H&mulon being confined to America. Aniso- tremus includes numerous deep-bodied species with smaller mouth, also all American. Anisotremus surinamensis , the pompon, abundant from Louisiana southward is the commonest species. Anisotremus virginicus, the porkfish or Catalineta, FIG. 278. — Porkfish, Anisotremus virginicus (Linnaeus). Key West. beautifully striped with black and golden, is very common in the West Indies. Plectorhynchus of Polynesia and the coasts of Asia contains numerous large species closely resembling Anisotremus, but lacking the groove at the chin character- istic of Anisotremus and Hcemulon. Some of these are striped or spotted with black in very gaudy fashion. Pomadasis, a genus equally abundant in Asia and America, contains silvery species of the sandy shores, with the body more elongate and the spines generally stronger. Pomadasis crocro is the com- monest West Indian species, Pomadasis hasta the best known of the Asiatic forms. Gnathodentex aurolineatus with golden stripes is common in Polynesia. 342 The Bass and their Relatives The pigfishes, Orthopristis, have the spines feebler and the anal fin more elongate. Of the many species, American and Mediterranean, Orthopristis chrysopterus is most familiar, ranging northward to Long Island, and excellent as a pan fish. Para- pristipoma trilineatum, the Isaki of Japan, is equally abundant and very similar to it. Many related species belong to the Asiatic genera, Terapon, Scolopsis, Ci, everywhere ; at