I. CHIM/ERA AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 



THE LIVING FISH: COLOR, SIZE, DISTRIBUTION, HABITS. 



This section was suggested as a beginning for the present memoir, since, in 

 spite of many references, no observations have hitherto been published describing 

 the living fish. In fact, the impression which the rank and file of zoologists have of 

 Chimaera is, I believe, derived from the figure* given by Valenciennes in the illus- 

 trated edition of Cuvier's Regne Animal, which has been copied trustfully by text- 

 books, even by those which have appeared during recent years. This figure was 

 evidently taken from a stuffed specimen, and gives the grotesque appearance of one 

 of Aldrovandus's monsters, thus well meriting the name of "Chimaera." It is a sur- 



Fig. I. Chimaera colliei. One- fifth actual size. 



The upper specimen, a male, shows the frontal clasping organ everted, a position which was only retained by fastening the organ in 

 this position. The mixipterygia were turned somewhat sideways, so as to make them more apparent. The antero-ventra! clasping organ 

 is not conspicuous, but its tip is seen to protrude from the vertical slit immediately in front of the pelvic fin. The figure indicates the 

 translucency of the snout region. 



The lower, larger specimen, a well-grown female, shows immediately above the base of the ventral fin the tumid eminence at the 

 opening of an oviduct. It illustrates, as secondary sexual characters, the narrower pectoral fin and first dorsal. 

 The photographs illustrate the translucency of the fins and delicate sheen of the newly-caaght specimens. 



prise, therefore, to find that the fish is, in point of fact, remarkably beautiful, its 

 contours well rounded, its fins delicate, and its colors almost herring-like in bril- 

 liancy. Instead of "Chimaera" it deserves rather its popular Norwegian name, "king 

 of the herrings," or, better still, its Japanese name, ".gin-same" (silver shark). 

 On the other hand, it can not be denied that there is a suspicion of grotesqueness 



*This is scarcely more satisfactory than the "fantastic figures of Clusius and Aldrovandus, " to which this 

 author refers. 



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