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THE STARGAZER. 



Mr. Bennett, who seems to have discovered this curious creature, writes as follows 

 respecting its appearance : 



"Though the discovery of these (luminous) medusae was a satisfactory explanation of 

 the phosphorescent appearance of the water, I had yet to learn that the latter effect was 

 partly produced by living, bony, and perfectly organized fish. Such fish were numer- 

 ous in the sea this night, and a tow-net captured ten of them in the space of a few 

 hours. They were a species of Scopelus, three inches in length, covered with scales 

 of a steel-gray color, and the fins spotted with gray. Each side of the margin of the 

 abdomen was occupied by a single row of small and circular depressions of the same 

 metallic gray hue as the scales, a few similar depressions being also scattered on the 

 sides, but with less regularity. 



The examples we obtained were alive when taken from the net, and swam actively 

 upon being placed in a vessel of sea-water. When handled, or swimming, they emitted 

 a vivid phosphorescent light from the scales or plates covering the body and head, as 

 well as from the circular depressions on the abdomen and sides, and which presented 

 the appearance of so many small stars spangling the surface of the skin. The luminous 



STARCAZER. Aaableps tetrophthalmus. 



gleam (which had sometimes an intermittent or twinkling character, and at others shone 

 steadily for several minutes together) entirely disappeared after the death of the fish. In 

 two specimens we examined, the contents of the stomach were small shrimps." 



The head of this fish is large and blunt, the eyes are remarkably large, and of a 

 silvery whiteness. The scales are very loose, and fall off with the least touch. 



THE fish which is represented in the accompanying illustration may fairly take rank 

 as one of the oddities of the finny race. 



Flat headed, round bodied, and strong scaled, with projecting eyes of most remarkable 

 formation, the STARGAZER has long attracted the attention of naturalists, and given the 

 anatomical investigator much trouble in unravelling the intricate mechanism of its eyes. 

 At a first glance, the fish appears to possess four distinct eyes, each of these organs being 

 divided across the middle, and apparently separated into two distinct portions. In fact, an 

 opaque band runs transversely across the cornea of the eye, and the iris, or colored 

 portion, sends out two processes which meet each other under the transverse band of the 

 cornea, so that the fish appears to possess even a double pupil. Still, on closer inves- 

 tigation, the connection between the divisions of the pupil are apparent, and can 



