344 VERTEBRATES : FISHES. 



ily embraces fishes which have a long tube in front of the 

 cranium, at the extremity of which is the mouth. They 

 inhabit the warm seas, and are sometimes called Tobacco- 

 Pipe Fishes. The Genus Fistularia has a very long fila- 

 ment extending from between the two lobes of the tail. 

 The Tobacco-Pipe Fish, F. serrata, Bloch, of the southern 

 coast of Massachusetts and southward, is nineteen inches 

 long without the filament, or twenty-eight including it. 



EXOCGETID^:, OR FLYING-FISH FAMILY. This Family 

 is characterized by the excessive development of the pec- 

 Fig. 217. torals, which are about the 

 length of the body, and enable 

 the possessors to support them- 

 selves in the air for a few mo- 

 ments. Fishes of this family 

 are found in all warm and tem- 

 perate seas, and there are many 

 species from three to twelve inches in length. 



HYPS^ID^:, OR BLIND-FISH FAMILY. This Family 

 contains the Blind-Fish, Amblyopsis spelceus, Dekay, of 

 Fig- 218. the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. 



This celebrated fish is about three 

 , ^ ^ inches long, with the vent before 



Blind-Fish, A . speteus, Dek. the base of the pectorals, and the 

 eyes concealed under the skin so as to make the fish per- 

 fectly blind, and thus adapted to the dark waters of the 

 cave. 



THE SILURID/E, OR CAT-FISH FAMILY. This Family 

 is readily distinguished from all other abdominal mala- 

 copterygians , by the absence of scales, the skin being 

 either naked or covered with large bony plates. The 

 head in most cases is large, depressed, and with several 

 fleshy filaments. In a majority of cases, the first ray of 

 the dorsal and pectoral has a strong spine, which is so 

 articulated that the fish can bring it close to the body, 



