196 ACANTHOPTERYGII. — FISTULARIAD^. 



red hue. The eyes are large and conspicuous ; 

 the irides are silvery, streaked with red, and the 

 pupils are black. The scales are hard and rough, 

 granulated on the surface and beautifully ciliated, 

 or cut into very delicate filaments on the hinder 

 edge. 



Little is known of the habits of this singular 

 little fish. According to Risso, it prefers a muddy 

 bottom in moderately deep water, spawning in 

 spring. The young are seen near the shore of the 

 Mediterranean in autumn, shining with the silvery 

 gleam already alluded to, they not having yet ac- 

 quired the rich hue of the adult state : they are 

 not numerous, and do not wander far from the 

 locality in which they are bred. We have, how- 

 ever, seen the Snipe-fish under circumstances which 

 seem to imply very different habits from these. In 

 a recent voyage to Jamaica, when about one hundred 

 and sixty miles south west of Madeira, a little 

 Centriscus was taken alive in a bucket of water 

 drawn from alongside ; and on the same day a 

 Bonito {Thynnus pelamys) was caught, the stomach 

 of which was filled with these Snipe-fishes. The 

 Bonito is well-known to be a surface-swimming 

 fish ; and his morning meal having been exclusively 

 made of the Centrisci, combines with the specimen 

 taken in a bucket, to prove that the latter also is 

 a surface species, while the locality shows it to 

 be pelagic. As all the individuals were alike in 

 size, and none exceeded two inches and a half in 

 length, it may have been a species distinct from 

 the C. scolopax of the Mediterranean. 



The food of the Snipe-fish is not recorded by 

 naturalists : Mr. Yarrell, however, speaking con- 

 jectural] y, says, " it probably consists of minute 



