138 



Seepentine Apodals.- 



-FISHES.- 



-Ophisukoids. 



alluded to by Brydone, and found that they were not 

 Greek, but a mere jargon not traceable to any known 

 language. It would be well to compare them with 

 Hebrew, as they may be a remnant of the ancient 

 rha?nician tongue. Strabo describes this fishery, 

 which he believes was as ancient as the days of Ulysses. 

 The flesh of the Sword-fish is e.xcellent, resembles beef, 

 and is generally dressed in form of steaks. It is pre- 

 served by salting, and the fins are prepared in Sicily, 

 and sold under the name of Callo. The highly-esteemed 

 Uraon of the ancients was cut from the tail. 



The great strength of the Sword-fish renders it a 

 formidable enemy, and it is able to use its beak with 

 fatal ert'ect. It sometimes drives this weapon through 

 the planks of a ship, and specimens of beams so trans- 

 fi.xed are not unfrequent in museums.* 



Family XXXIII.— T^NIOIDS {Twnicedw). 

 Plate 11, fig. 57. 



These are sword-shaped or tape-like fishes, with a 

 smooth nacry skin, containing delicate microscopical 

 scales, and bands of soft or hard tubercles imbedded 

 in the thickness of the skin. Some have rows of super- 

 ficial bony shields. The dorsal fin extends nearly the 

 whole length of the back, and its front rays, standing 

 on the head or nape, are generally tall. The caudal 



varies with the genus. The anal is absent. The ven- 

 trals are sub-brachial, and in some are small, and 

 composed of six rays ; in others very long, and con- 

 sisting of only one or two rays. The jointed rays 

 are not branched, and the rays of all the fins are so 

 fragile that a complete sjjecimen has scarcely ever been 

 obtained. The mouth is small and protractile. The 

 skeleton is fibrous, but has little compactness, and is 

 easily injured. The stomach is prolonged below the 

 pylorus in form of a conical bag, and the pancreatic 

 coeca are very numerous. There is no air-bladder. 



The genera are — Trach-jpterus ; Begahcus ; Gf/mneirus ; and 

 ■Slylephorus. 



The unusual forms of these fishes render them inter- 

 esting. They are well named Trenioids or Ribbon- 

 fishes, because of their thinness and length, which in 

 some extends to between twenty and thirty feet. The 

 tenderness of their fins, and the brittleness of their 

 bones, unfit them for contending with a rough sea, and 

 it is probable that their habitual residence is in the still 

 waters of considerable depths ; 3'et their colours are 

 brilliant and beautiful. They are obtained chiefly 

 after storms, by which they are thrown disabled on the 

 shore. The British species are the Vaagmoer (Tra- 

 chypterus bor/mariis), and Bank's Oar-fish {Rcgakcus 

 Banksii). 



Okdee v.— MALACOPTEEES or PllYSOSTOMES. 



Malacopterous fishes have their fins supported by 

 jointed or branching rays, not associated with spines as 

 in the preceding order ; though in some cases, and more 

 especially in the Cy[)rinoid family, one or more of the 

 dorsal rays are stout, round, tapering, and stiff, losing 

 by age their joints, which are visible in the young fish ; 

 but in these instances the characteristic ventral spine 

 of the Acanthoptercs is absent. Another important 

 character of this order, is the x>re.sence of a pneiimatlc 

 ^«ie. leading from the cavity of the air-bladder to the 

 CEsophagus or stomach — hence the appellation of Phy- 

 sostomes. The gills are free, with a single operoulated 

 external opening on each side, these openings being in 

 one or two groups only; approximated on the throat so 

 as to appear like one ; the arterial bulb is valvular at 

 its origin only ; the scales are cycloid or absent ; and in 

 general the bones contain radiated, osseous corpuscles, 

 these organisms being absent merely in a few minor 

 groups of this order. 



The Malacopteres have been divided into two sub- 

 orders by the presence or absence of ventral fins, 

 namely, into Serpentiform Apodals {Apodes) and 



* The most recent instance that fias come to our Iciiowlcflge 

 is tliat of the liarque Maud of Tyneniouth, wliich sprung]; a leal: 

 on her voyap;o homewards from Ceylon. Slie arrived in the 

 Tyne towards the close of Ma)', 18G0, and being put into the 

 middle doci; for repairs, one of the planlcs under the bilge was 

 foinid to have been perforated fiy the bealv of a Svvord-lisli, a 

 ]iiece of the bealc, nine and a lialf inches long, having been 

 ibuud still sticking in the wood. — Newspaper paragrai^h. 



Malacopterous Abdominals; the ventrals when 

 present in this order being situated on the belly. 



Family I.— OPHISUROIDS {Ophisuridm). 

 Plate 2, :ig. 8 ; Plate 1, fig. 5. 



This family belongs to the Serpentiform Apodals, 

 a group of fish in which the predominant aspect is that 

 of a long thick worm, covered with a slimy skin, for 

 the most part scaleless, but in two or three families 

 producing small imbedded scales. The fins, generally 

 long and low, are supported by simple rays, not jointed, 

 but of a very soft texture. Some groups want the pec- 

 torals as well as the ventrals, and are therefore termed 

 both abrachial and apodal. A few genera are destitute 

 not only of these lateral limbs, but also of vertical fins, 

 and therefore exhibit examples of fish wholly without 

 fins. Eibs are not developed in any of the Serpentiform 

 Apodals, except in the Congeroids, which have an 

 extraordinary number of these processes. 



The Opliisuroids have CKcal stomachs, that is, a hag- 

 like protuberance beneath the pylorus of that viscus, hut 

 they have no pyloric ca3ca. Dr. Kaup, in his recent 

 very complete review of the Apodal sub-order,* divides 

 it into two sections, one having the posterior openings 

 of the nosfiil-tubes exterior to the mouth, and clearly 

 visible on the side of the face ; the other having the 



* Catalogue of Apodal Fish in the British Museum, 1856. 



