758 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



Fistularia depressa, GUNTHER, Report on Shore Fishes, Challenger Report, 69, pi. 32,* fig. D, 1880, 

 type from Sulu Archipelago ; other specimens from Natal; Zanzibar; Amboyna 5 

 China; New Guinea; New South Wales; Fiji Islands; California. 



1108. FISTULARIA PETIMBA, Lacepede. 



Head 2f; snout 3f. D. 14; A. 13. Interorbital space concave: the 2 

 middle ridges on the upper surface of the snout run close and parallel to 

 each other along the anterior half of the length of the snout, being far- 

 thest apart near the middle ; lateral margin of snout strongly serrated, 

 except on its anterior third. Body moderately depressed, with minute 

 asperities which render the skin rough to the touch. Color nearly uniform 

 brown; fins reddish. Length 5 feet. Western Pacific, and other warm 

 seas, also recorded from the Bermudas ( J. M. Jones) and from Cuba (Poey). 

 (Petinibuaba, Portuguese name of Fistularia tabacaria.} 



PIPE, John White, Voyage New South Wales, pi. 64, fig. 2. 



Fistularia tabacaria, var., BLOCH, Ichth., pi. 387, fig. 2, 1794, "Coll. Linke at Leipzig;" wrongly 

 figured as spotted with blue; snout serrate; 2 caudal filaments. 



Fistularia petimba, LACEPEDE, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 349, 1803, (excl. syn.), New Britain, Isle of 

 Reunion, equatorial Pacific; based on specimens and manuscripts of Commerson; snout 

 serrate; body immaculate. 



Fistularia serrala, CUVIER, Regne Animal, Ed. i, 349, 1817 (after BLOCH); GUNTHER, Cat., in, 533, 

 1861; GUNTHER, Shore Fishes, Challenger, 68, pi. 32, fig. C, 1880; JORDAN & GILBERT, Syn- 

 opsis, 390, 1883. 



Fistularia immaculata, CUVIER, Regne Animal, Ed. i, 349, 1817, Sea of the Indies; after COM. 

 MERSON and JOHN WHITE. 



Fistularia commersonii, RIIPPELL, Neue Wirbelthiere, 142, 1834, Red Sea. 



Family GIL MACRORHAMPHOSID^. 



(THE SNIPEFISHES.) 



Body compressed, oblong, or elevated, covered with small, rough scales ; 

 no lateral line ; some bony strips on the side of the back and on the mar- 

 gin of the thorax and abdomen, the former sometimes confluent into a 

 shield. Bones of the skull much prolonged anteriorly, forming a long 

 tube which bears the short jaws at the end ; no teeth. Gill openings wide ; 

 branchiostegals 4. Branchihyals and pharyngeals mostly present, the 

 fourth superior branchihyal and the first and fourth superior pharyngeals 

 only wanting. Two dorsal fins, the first of 4 to 7 spines, the second of 

 which is very long and strong ; soft dorsal and anal moderate ; ventral 

 fins small, abdominal, of 1 spine and 5 soft rays ; pectorals short ; caudal 

 fin emarginate, its middle rays not produced. Air bladder large ; pseudo- 

 branchiaB present. Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth ; vertebrae about 24, the 

 four anterior ones much lengthened ; no pyloric coeca ; intestinal canal 

 short. Three or more species, chiefly of the Old World, one of them 



* In this figure the lower lateral ridge appears outside of the upper or serrated ridge. This is 

 due to an artificial depression of the expansible beak. In other respects the California species 

 agrees with Gunther's figure of the type from Sulu Archipelago. 



