REMARKABLE FISHES. 77 



moderate or rather large size, one about three inches in length 

 being found in Lake Erie, and in streams in Minnesota, Ken- 

 tucky and Texas. By its habit of burying itself in the sand 

 by an instantaneous movement, it becomes of especial inter- 

 est. The other species differ slightly, either in size, markings 

 or habits, and inhabit the streams of more southern localities 

 in some instances, but all retain their pellucid appearance, so 

 different from other fishes. 



Another example of transparency is to be found in a 

 family very far removed from the Perches. This is the family 

 of the Lipar-ididac, or Sea Snails, one of the group of the 

 lyUmp Fishes, which are provided with a sucking disc between 

 their ventral fins, by which they attach themselves to rocks or 

 other objects. In this family there are two genera of fishes 

 with transparent bodies. The family includes forty different 

 species, none of them being distinguished in this manner 

 except Lipa?'is cyelostigrna, which is a large fish found in 

 Bering Sea and adjacent waters, and is beautifully colored, 

 and Crysfa/lichthys mirabilis, or the wonderful "Crystal Fish," 

 also of Bering Sea. The latter, like its relative, is a large 

 fish, soft and gelatinous in texture, translucent, and showing 

 colors of grayish or purplish and reddish, marked with man}^ 

 round spots. 



There are transparent Jelly Fishes, and other creatures 

 amongst the Invertebrates, but so far as I can recall, these 

 are the onlj^ known Vertebrates which are pellucid. I know 

 of no theory which explains their existence, since they occur 

 in families of fishes otherwise normal. 



Other curious fishes are those which recall the larval forms 

 of the Lady Fishes and their relatives, in the band or ribbon 

 like slenderness of their bodies. 



Among the Scombroidea, or Mackerel like fishes, is one 

 family, the TricJmiridae , or Hair Tails or Cutlass Fishes, 

 which look like a flattened Eel, the tail being very long and 

 ending in a point, and the backbone composed of about i6o 

 vertebrae, while the body is as flat as that of a Flounder. 



