344 VERTEBRATES : FISHES. 



ily embraces fishes which have a long tube in front of the 

 cranium, at the extremity of which is the mouth. They 

 inhabit the warm seas, and are sometimes called Tobacco- 

 Pipe Fishes. The Genus Fistularia has a very long fila- 

 ment extending from between the two lobes of the tail. 

 The Tobacco-Pipe Fish, F. serrata, Bloch, of the southern 

 coast of Massachusetts and southward, is nineteen inches 

 long without the filament, or twenty-eight including it. 



EXOCCETID^:, OR FLYING-FISH FAMILY. This Family 

 is characterized by the excessive development of the pec- 

 Fig. 217. torals, which are about the 

 length of the body, and enable 

 the possessors to support them- 

 selves in the air for a few mo- 

 ments. Fishes of this family 

 are found in all warm and tem- 

 Fiying-Fish, Except. perate seas, and there are many 

 species from three to twelve inches in length. 



HYPS^ID^:, OR BLIND-FISH FAMILY. This Family 

 contains the Blind-Fish, Amblyopsis spdceus, Dekay, of 

 Fig. 218. the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. 



This celebrated fish is about three 

 inches long, with the vent before 

 Blind-Fish, A . speieeus, Dek. the base of the pectorals, and the 

 eyes concealed under the skin so as to make the fish per- 

 fectly blind, and thus adapted to the dark waters of the 

 cave. 



THE SILURID^E, OR CAT-FISH FAMILY. This Family 

 is readily distinguished from all other abdominal mala- 

 copterygians by the absence of scales, the skin being 

 either naked or covered with large bony plates. The 

 head in most cases is large, depressed, and with several 

 fleshy filaments. In a majority of cases, the first ray of 

 the dorsal and pectoral has a strong spine, which is so 

 articulated that the fish can bring it close to the body, 



