﻿318 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



FAMILY XV. FISTULAEID^. 



Characterized by a long tube in the fore part of the cranium, formed by the pro- 

 lono-ation of the ethmoid, vomer, preopercula, interopercula, pterygoideals, and 

 tympanals, and at the extremity of which is the mouth, composed, as usual, of the 

 intermaxillaries, maxillaries, and the palatine and mandibulary bones. Their intestine 

 has neither great inequalities nor many folds, and their ribs are short or wanting. 

 Some of them, the FistularitE, have a cylindrical body ; in others, the Centrisci, it is 

 oval and compressed. 



GENUS FISTULAEIA, Lacep. 



Body elongated, cylindrical. Dorsal opposite to the anal. The intermaxillaries and 

 the lower jaw are armed with small teeth. From between the two lobes of the caudal 

 proceeds a filament which is sometimes as long as the body. The tube of the snout is 

 very long and depressed. The natatory bladder is excessively small, and the scales are 

 imdsible. 



FiSTULARIA SERKATA, BlocJl. 



The Tobacco-pij)e Fish. 

 (Plate XXV. Fig. 1.) 



Petimbuabo Brazil, Tobacco-pipe Fish, Catesby, Hist. Cirol., Ii- p. 17. 

 Fistularia seiroto (1), Bloch, varietj of tabacaria. 



« '■ SnAW, Gen. Zool., v. pi. 107, fig. of tube. 



" " Tobacco-pipe Fish, Stoeek, Report, p. 80. 



" " American Pipe-fish, Dekat, Report, p. 232, pi. 35, fig. 113. 



" " Stores, Mem. Amer. Acad., New Series, ii. p. 443. 



" " " S}-iiopsis, p. 191. 



Color. Back a light drab. Abdomen silvery. A narrow brownish-blue band along 

 the sides. Throat white. Irides silvery. 



Bescription. Body to dorsal cylindrical, greatly elongated ; between dorsal and 

 caudal, flattened from above. Head of but little less diameter than body. Snout 

 prolonged into a lengthened tube, the distance from the orbit to the tip of the lower 

 jaw being nearly four times that from the orbit to the posterior angle of the operculum. 

 Whole length of head rather more than a thkd of whole length of body, exclusive of 

 caudal filament; its depth but little less than that of the body, and one ninth its 

 whole length. Snout horny, somewhat broader than deep ; strong longitudinal ridges 

 along its top, sides, and base. The lateral ridges extend from the anterior and superior 

 edge of the orbit to the tip of the upper jaw, and are strongly serrated nearly the whole 



