168 FISHES. 



The fifteenth and last family of the Acanthopterygians, or that of 



FAMILY XV. 



FLUTE-MOUTHS, 



Sometimes called Tobacco-pipe Fish, have for their distinguishing char- 

 acter a long tube in front of the cranium, which is only a continuation of 

 the gethmoid bone, the vomer, the preopercula, the interopercula, the pte- 

 rygoid, and tympanal bones: at the extremity of this tube is observed the 

 mouth, which is formed in the usual way by the intermaxillary, maxillary, 

 palatine, and mandibular bones. Their intestine is not marked by any 

 considerable inequalities, or by numerous folds, and the ribs are short or 

 altogether absent. One portion of the Flute-Mouths (the Fistularia) 

 have the body cylindrical; the other (the Centriscus) have it oval and 

 compressed. 



Fistularia, Lin. 



The Tubular Fishes take their name in particular from the long tube 

 which is common to the whole family. The jaws are at its extremity, 

 slightly cleft in a neai'ly horizontal direction. This head, thus elongated, 

 constitutes the third or fourth of the total length of the body, which is it- 

 self long and thin. There are six or seven rays in the branchiae, and 

 some bony appendages extend behind the head, upon the anterior part of 

 the body, which they strengthen more or less. The dorsal is opposite to 

 the anal; the stomach, resembling a fleshy tube, is continued in a straight 

 canal, without duplicatures, to the commencement of which are attached 

 two caeca. In 



Fistularia, Lacep., 



The Fistularia, properly so called, there is but a single dorsal, composed 

 for the most part, as well as the anal, of simple rays. The intermaxilla- 

 ries and the lower jaw are armed with small teeth. From between the 

 two lobes of the caudal proceeds a filament which is sometimes as long as 

 the body. The tube of the snout is very long and depressed, the natatory 

 bladder excessively small, and the scales invisible. They are found in 

 the seas of hot climates in both hemispheres*. In the 



Aulostomus-j-, Lacep., 



The dorsal is preceded by several free spines, and the jaws are without 

 teeth ; the body, very scaly and less slender, is widened and compressed 

 between the dorsal and the anal, and following it is a short and very small 

 tail, terminated by a common fin. The tube of the snout is shorter, 

 thicker, and compressed; natatory bladder very large. 



* Fistularia tabacaria, Bl. 387, 1; Fist, serrata, Id., lb. 2; are from America, 

 Marcgr. 148, Catesb. II, xvii; — Fist, immaculata, Commers., J. White, p. 296, f. 2, is 

 from the Indian Ocean. 



t Aulostomus, from the Greek c.ulos, a flute, and stoma, a mouth. 



