170 FAMILIES OF SYNEXTOaXATHOUS FISHES— GILL. vol.xviii. 



female kingfisher deposits her round, shining-white eggs, from six to eiglit or nine 

 in number. 



The Enropeau kingfisher is a small bird, with a length of wiug of 

 about 3 inches. Therefore it can not catch garfishes, although it can 

 capture small pipefishes, living, as they do, in shallow, reedy waters. 



Another ancient equivalent of ;?£/">/; was «o/£i/>y;c,' and that name, 

 signifying " without nuicosity," would be especially applicable to the 

 pipefish and not to the gar. 



Still another synonym of {izhhr^ was [>o.(fi-. The Ehaphisj according 

 to Aristotle, was toothless, thus contrasting with the formidably toothed 

 gar and agreeing with the edentulous i)ipefishes. The synonymy of 

 RJiaphis with Btione was declared by Dorio, according to Athenieus,^ 

 who said that the ^e'/jr^r, was the same fish they called paipic. The name 

 is also still retained in composition in (xroece, the Siphostoma acus 

 being known in some places as Saccorapha {iraxxopdwa), according to 

 Apostolides.^ 



So fiir, then, as all the statements respecting Belo7ie and its syno- 

 nyms, Iiliaphis and Ahlennes, are specific, they are applicable to the 

 jjipefishes and not to the garfishes. But surely, it may be urged, the 

 garfish must have been noticed by Aristotle or some of the ancient 

 writers. It undoubtedly was, and one of the names that has not been 

 identified indicated that fish. 



Aristotle, in referring to those fishes which are gregarious, names 

 the SarginoH {lapyho:) just before the Belone.^ This alone would show 

 nothing and would cast no light on the special fish intended, but it so 

 happens that very slight modifications of the same name {aapyd'j'joz^ 

 Zapyd'^i) are still borne in Greece by the garfish, according to Erhard, 

 Apostolides, and Hoffman. This fact, taken in connection with its 

 habits and the juxtaposition of the name to Belone, as well as negative 

 evidence, leaves little or no doubt that the Sarginos" of Aristotle was 

 the garfish. 



'By a fortunate lapsus in transliteration, Dr. Jordan gave the name Athlennes 

 (instead of Ablennes) to a subgenus of gars peculiar to America, and therefore only 

 a meaningless name has resulted instead of the more objectionable perversion of an 

 ancient one. 



2Book VII, section 111. 



^La Pcche en Grecc, p. 11. 



•"Aristotle, after distinguishing different kinds of gregariou.sness in fishes, col- 

 locates them as follows : 'O'/uog iya)s?Mla ta^^i ra Toi.a6i:,-&vvvifi€<;, naivi^eq, k(ii3lol, jiuKeq, 

 oal'poL, nopaKlvoL, aivodovreg, Tpr/?.at, afi'iMivm, dv&lai, tXeylvoi, ci'&eplvoi, aapytvoi, jSeaovcu, 

 TEV&ol, lov?u6ec, nriXa/ivde^, aK6/i[3poL, KO/uai, — IX, chap. 2 (3). 



■Sarginos, it has been said, "seems to be A derivative of aupyo^," but this ety- 

 mology appears to me to be very improbable, and the similarity of the two names is 

 probably a mere accidental coincidence. A strauge identification has been attempted 

 of the Sarghios with the Tetragonurus cuvieri, or, in the words of Cresswell (Aris- 

 totle's History of Animals, p. 321), " Tetraf/onus niger." (It may be added that the 

 page referred to in Cresswell's index should be "234" instead of "231.") There 

 is, of course, not the slightest justification for such an identification. 



