SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 155 



Family AMBLYOPSIDvE. The Blind-fishes. 



This singular American family is composed of small, ovoviviparous fishes 

 with primitive or rudimentary eyes, living in caves, swamps, and ditches of the 

 Southern and South Central states. Superficially these fishes resemble the 

 Poeciliidae, but the mouth is much larger, the scales are finer, the ventral fins are 

 absent or rudimentary, and the vent is placed far forward. Other characters of 

 this family are an elongate body, compressed posteriorly; long, fiat head; pro- 

 jecting under jaw; edge of upper jaw formed by a long premaxillary; jaws and 

 palatines with bands of sharp, slender teeth; short gill-rakers; branchial mem- 

 branes connected with the isthmus; lateral line absent; air-bladder present; 

 ovary single; single dorsal fin with few rays, placed about midway between end of 

 snout and end of tail; anal similar to and opposite dorsal; caudal rounded, pointed 

 or truncate; and pectorals rather long and pointed. Of the 4 or 5 known genera, 

 only one is represented coastwise, and that has functional eyes and a pigmented 

 skin, all the others having skin-covered eyes and colorless body. 



Genus CHOLOGASTER Agassiz. Swamp Minnows. 



Eyes small; pyloric cceca 2; ventral fins absent. Three or more species, one 

 found coastwise in the South Atlantic region. {Chologaster , maimed belly.) 



132. CHOLOGASTER CORNUTUS Agassiz. 

 Fish of the Dismal Swamp. 



Chologaster cornutus Agassiz, American Journal Science and Arts, 1853, 135; Waccamaw, S. C, in rice-field 

 ditch. Jordan & Evermann, 1896, 703, pi. cxv, fig. 305; Dismal Swamp to Okefinokee Swamp. . 



Chologaster avitus Jordan & Jenkins, in Jordan, 1889a, 356, pi. 44; outlet of Lake Drummond, Dismal Swamp, 

 near Suffolk, Va. 



Diagnosis. — Body elongate, depth about .16 length; head .33 length; eye .10 to .12 head, 

 .5 snout; maxillary reaching to front of eye; gill-membranes covering the vent; scales in lateral 

 series about 70; dorsal rays 8 or 9, the longest but little more than half length of head; anal 

 rays 8 or 9, shorter than dorsal; caudal pointed, about length of head; pectorals .66 length of 

 head. Color: body and head dark brown above, white below; sides with 3 narrow longi- 

 tudinal black stripes, the middle one extending across eye and snout; dorsal white with dark 

 spots; a black blotch at base of tail, beyond which a white area or bar, the posterior .5 to .6 

 of tail black, {cornutus, horned, in allusion to the flaps of the nostrils.) 



Although long known from Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia, this 

 species has only recently been reported from North Carolina. Mr. Wm. P. Seal 

 has collected the fish in a large cypress pond near Wilmington where it is "about 

 as abundant as non-gregarious species generally are — such as Umbra and 

 Aphredoderus " ; he has also found it in tidal ditches in the same section, in com- 

 pany with Gambusia and Heterandria, In Lake Ellis, Craven County, the fish 

 is common, according to Mr. C. S. Brimley; and it may be looked for in other 

 parts of North Carolina in suitable situations. The maximum length does not 

 exceed 2.5 inches. 



