474 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



themselves in Wyandotte Cave, where they bring forth and rear 

 their young. They have exterminated the cave rats, and now sta- 

 tion themselves in a narrow passage of the cave and capture bats 

 as they fly through. 



Among the permanent residents in dark places we have, among 

 mammals, the moles, which habitually live in burrows of their own 



make. In .Mammoth Cave lives a rat 



— Neotoma pennsylvanica. In Marengo 

 < 'ave, Indiana, white-footed mice have es- 

 lablishcd themselves. Although with un- 

 impaired eyes, they have acquired ears and 

 whiskers longer than the rest of their kind 

 living outside. 



In Florida occurs a blind lizard — Rhi- 

 neura floridana. It burrows in the ground, 

 and is colorless and blind. 



Of salamanders, one blind species lives 

 in European caves. In the large caves of 

 the eastern United States no blind sala- 

 manders have been found, although other 

 species, especially Spelerpes maculicauda, 

 abound. In the caves of Missouri a veiled- 

 eyed salamander, Typhlotriton, has been 

 described within recent years by Stejne- 

 ger. Still another salamander, Typhlo- 

 molge, having rudimentary eyes, has been 

 cast up from an artesian well at San Marcos, Texas, and occurs in 

 the cave streams about that place. 



The most abundant of the blind vertebrates, both in individuals 

 and in species, are the blind fishes. These, from their geographical 

 distribution, may be separated into three groups: (1) Those inhab- 

 iting the depths of the ocean; (2) those inhabiting dark places 

 along the shores of the ocean; (3) those inhabiting the under- 

 ground fresh waters. 



The fishes, blind or partially blind, living in the depths of 

 the ocean bordering the American continents, are as follows: 1. 

 Ipnops Murrayi Giinther lives at depths varying from 955 fathoms 

 to 2,158 and has the very wide distribution suggested by the locali- 

 ties from which specimens have been secured — viz., off the coast 

 of Brazil, near Tristan da Cumba, near Celebes, latitude 24° 36' 

 north, longitude 84° 51' west, and off Bequia. This is the only ver- 

 tebrate in which no vestige of an eye has been found. Ipnops stands 

 alone in a family. 2. The Brotulidse have several members blind 

 or with very much reduced eyes in various parts of the globe. 



Fiu. 1. — The cave salaiiiaiKlur 

 of the Mississippi Valley 

 (Spelerpes maculicauda). 



