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, 



