58 SYNOPSIS OF THE FAMILY HETEROPYGII. 



BOSTON SOCIETY or NATURAL HISTORY. 

 2 specimens. No. 840. Half grown. Mammoth Cave. 



PEABODY ACADEMY or SCIENCE. 



1 specimen. No. 520. Adult 9 . Mammoth Cave. Presented to Essex Insti- 

 tute in 1851 by N. Silsbee. 



Other specimens. Dr. Glintlier mentions six specimens and a skele- 

 ton in the British Museum. Mr. Thompson, an adult and newly born 

 young in the collection of the Natural History Society of Belfast. 

 Dr. Steindachncr has recently sent an adult and eight young to 

 the Vienna Museum. The first specimen of which we have any 

 record was presented to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia ; the second is the one described by DeKay and then in the 

 Lyceum of Natural History of New York. Prof. Cope obtained three 

 specimens from the waters of Wyandotte Cave in Indiana. Dr. Tell- 

 kampf had several specimens from the Mammoth Cave, and it is prob- 

 able that specimens exist in nearly all the principal museums and in 

 many private collections, as about all that have been caught in the 

 Mammoth Cave for years have been sold by the guides to visitors. 



Habits. But little is known of the habits of the large bliudfish. 

 Dr. Tellkampf states that they are solitary ; on the slightest motion 

 of the water they dart off a short distance, and that they are mostly 

 found near stones or rocks on the bottom, and seldom come to the 

 surface of the water. Prof. Cope states that if they are not alarmed 

 they come to the surface to feed, swim in full sight, and can then be 

 easily captured if perfect silence is preserved. He also thinks that 

 they are principally surface feeders. 



In the stomachs of several that I have opened the only remains 

 found were those of Crayfish. In one specimen, opened by Dr. Wy- 

 man, a small fish with well developed eyes was found in the stomach. 

 (See Amer. Nat., vi, p. 13, PI. 1, fig. 13.) 



The eggs are well developed in September, and the young are born 

 about the middle to last of October. The young when born are half 

 an inch or less in length, and are icithout external eyes. (See Amer. 

 Nat., Feb., 1872. The young there mentioned may possibly be those 

 of Typhlichthys.) 



Typhlichthys GIRARD, Procd. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., p. C3, 1859. 



Eyes rudimentary and imbedded under the skin. 



Head. The same arrangement of rows of sensitive papillae as in 

 Amblyopsis, and the spaces between the papillae with granulations as 

 in that genus. (The subcutaneous canals probably exist, but have 

 not yet been made out.) 



Teeth, as in Amblyopsis, on the maxillaries and palatines. 



Body with papilla over opercular opening, and with the papillary 

 ridges on the sides as in Amblyopsis. 



Pyloric appendages one on each side as in Amblyopsis, but of 



