6 3 8 



TELEOSTEI 



CHAP. 



others (Hemirhamjjhus) mainly herbivorous, feeding on green 

 algae. Nearly all are in the habit of making great leaps out of 

 the water, this tendency culminating in the Flying-Fish (Exocoetus), 

 which skip or sail through the air in a manner the explanation 

 of which has given rise to much controversy. According to the 

 latest evidence l the sole source of motive power is the action of 

 the strong tail while in the water ; no force is acquired while 

 the fish is in the air. The pectorals are not used as wings but as 

 parachutes. There is every passage between the small pectoral 

 fin of a Saurie (Scombresox} or a Hemirhamphus and the swallow- 

 like wings of the most developed Exocoetus. The genus Hemi- 

 exocoetus is a very remarkable connecting form. The Gar-Pike 

 (Belone), of which one species is common on our coasts, have both 



FIG. 389. Gar-Pike (Belone annnlata], x J. (After Cuvier and Valenciennes.) 



jaws produced into a long slender beak ; the bones are green. 

 In Hemirhamphus the lower jaw only is prolonged ; some of the 

 species, living in fresh water, are viviparous, the anal fin being 

 modified into a copulatory organ, as in many Cyprinodonts. 



Scombresocidae occur in all the tropical and temperate seas. 

 Belone, Scombresox, and Hemirhamphus are found in Upper Eocene 

 and Miocene beds of Europe, and, as stated above, Protaulopsis 

 should perhaps be referred to this family. 



1 Kiikenthal, Abh. Senck. Oes. xxii. 1896, p. 9 ; Mobius, Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. 

 xxx. Suppl. 1878, p. 343, and Arch. Physiol. (Leipzig), 1889, p. 348 ; Jordan and 

 Evermann, Fish. N. Amer. p. 730. 



