124 NATURAL H1STORI. 



and becomes smaller towards the tail. The pectoral fins extend backward as far as the 

 root of the caudal fin, and the ventral fin is placed in advance of the dorsal fin, which 

 is on the hinder part of the body. The pectoral fins are black, with the lower border 

 whitish, and the ventral fins are white. The caudal fin is unevenly forked. The usual 

 length of this species is about sixteen inches, though Couch refers to an example which was 

 twenty inches long. The body is dark on the back, has a bluish tinge on. the sides, and is 

 white below. The longest time for which these fish have been seen to sustain themselves out 

 of the water is thirty seconds. There is no visible movement of the pactoral tins during 

 this time, and it is probable that the impetus is given to the fish by its tail while still in 

 the water. The longest flight observed has exceeded two hundred yards. The usual height 

 of the fish above the surface of the water when thus flying is from two to three feet ; but 

 they have been known to come on to ships of war at a height of more than twenty feet 

 above the saa. They are stated never to raise themselves above the height which they 

 first reach. Thousands often rise out of the sea at once, and move in many directions. 

 When kept in vessels of sea-water they can rise out of it to a height of only a few 

 inches. In all these fishes the air-bladder is lai'ge, and Humboldt mentions that in a fish 

 sixteen centimetres long the air-bladder has a length of nine and a breadth of two and 

 a half centimetres. The stomach has been found to contain small fishes, Crustacea, and many 

 small marine animals. The Exocoetus volitans is limited to the Mediterranean. This species, 

 belongs to the group with long ventral fins. The Flying Fish have many enemies. Prominent 

 among these are the Bonito, Tunny, Porpoises, and sea birds ; and they are good eating. 



FAMILY XV. CYPRINODONTIDJ3. 



This family comprises an assemblage of about twenty genera of small fishes, which are mostly 

 viviparous, and found in the fresh waters of Southern Europe, Africa, Asia, and America, The 

 family is subdivided into two principal groups. The first of these, called Cyprinodontidse carnivorse,, 

 has the bones of each mandible firmly united, and the intestine short, or but slightly convoluted. 

 In the second group, Cyprinodontidoe limnophagse, the dentary bone is movable upon the other 

 bones of the mandible ; the intestine has many convolutions, and, as with some of the genera 

 of the other group, the sexes present distinct external characters. Cyprinodon has several species,, 

 confined to the fresh and brackish waters of the Mediterranean region. Cyprinodon calaritanua 

 occurs in the South of Europe, and in the hot springs of the Sahara. The males are of an olive 

 colour, with nine or ten narrow silvery crossbars, but the females are silvery on the sides, with 

 black vertical stripes which do not extend on to either the back or the belly. Cyprinodon 

 dispar is found in Abyssinia, and also in the Dead Sea. Cyprinodon cypris is from the river 

 Jordan and Bagdad. The New World species are from Long Island, Texas, and other parts of 

 the United States. The species range from an inch to a length of about five inches. The 

 genus Fitzroyia has tricuspid teeth like those of Cyprinodon, but instead of being ai-ranged in a 

 single series, as in that genus, they form several series. The species F. multidentata is from 

 Monte Video. The single species of Characodon, from Central America, has the small teeth, 

 bicuspid. The Tellia apoda, from the higher pools of the Atlas Mountains, differs from 

 Cyprinodon chiefly in wanting the ventral fins. Haplochilus has slender, viliform teeth in both 

 jaws. The species belong to the Indian region, to tropical Africa, and temperate and tropical 

 America. The genus Fundulus, like the preceding genus, has the upper jaw movable, and 

 capable of being protracted. The species are all small and insectivorous. Fundulus hispanicus. 

 lives in the fresh waters of Spain. The known species of the genus Orestias, in which the ventral 

 fins are absent, are all from Lake Titicaca. In Jenynsia the teeth ar3 notched, and the anal 

 fin of the adult male is modified into a conical remarkable organ, in which scarcely any of the rays 

 remain distinct, a character found in several allied genera. Anableps has the ai-ches above tue eyes 

 greatly elevated, and the eye itself is divided by a dark-coloured transverse band into upper and lower 

 portions. This is not merely an external character, but the pupil itself is completely divided into two, by 

 lobes of the iris whicli project from the front and back margins of the eye. The anal fin of this fish is 

 modified in the male into a thick and long conical organ covered with scales, and is perforated at 



