344 NKW iUKK STATE MUSK'UM 



round. I have successfully raised this fish to nearly mature 

 growth. (After Eugene Smith^) 



The remarkable spinning habits of this fish have been 

 described by Prof. John A. Eyder in the bulletin of the U. S. 

 Fish Commission for 18S1. 



Family kisxulariidae: 



Cornet Fishes 



Genus fistilaria Linnaeus 



Body extremely elongate, much depressed, broader than deep; 

 scaleless, but having bony plates present on various par-ts of the 

 body, mostly covered by the skin; head very long, the anterior 

 bones of the skull much produced, forming a long tube, which 

 terminates in the narrow mouth, this tube formed by the sym- 

 plectic, proethmoid, metapterygoid, mesopterygoid, quadrate, 

 palatines, vomer, and mesethmoid; both jaws, and usually the 

 vomer and palatines also, with minute teeth; membrane uniting 

 the bones of the tube below, very lax, so that the tube is capable 

 of much dilation; post-temporal coossified with the cranium- 

 branchiostegals five to seven; gills four, a slit behind the fourth; 

 gill membranes separate, free from the isthmus, gill rakers 

 obsolete; basibranchial elements wanting, pseudobranchiae 

 wanting; air bladder large; spinous dorsal fin entirely 

 absent, soft dorsal short, posterior, somewhat elevated; 

 anal fin opposite it and similar; caudal fin forked, the 

 middle rays produced into a long filament; pectorals small, with 

 a I III -ad base, preceded by a smooth area as in Gasterosteidae, 

 pectoral ossicles 3; interclavicles greatly lengthened, supra- 

 clavicles very small; ventral fins very small, wide apart, abdom- 

 inal (tlii(iii;j:]i partial nirophy of the girdle, by which they lose- 

 coniif.iinii Willi the interclavicles), far in advance of the dorsal, 

 ciMiipoNed nf six soft rays; p\ huic caeca few; intestine short; 

 veiirl.in,. vei V niinieiuus (4 44 to 40+28 to 33), the first four ver- 

 teiiiiie very junii. Fishes of the tropical seas, related to the 



I, inn. Sue. X V I'l... 1S<i7. no. 9. p. .'U. 



