NATURE 



\yuly21, 1872 



of Fishes* places the Amblyopsis in ihc order of Haplonii 

 with the shore minnows, pickerel and mud llsli, and in an 

 article on the Wyandotte Cave,!' he says that the Cyprino- 

 dontes (shore minnows) are its nearest allies. This 

 arrangement by Prof. Cope places the Haplomi between 

 the order containing the herrings and that containing 

 the electric eel of South America, all included with the 

 garpike, dog fish of the fresh waters {Amid), cat fishes, 

 suckers, and eels proper, &c. in the division ofPhysostomi 

 as limited by him. 



Prof Agassizjin 1851 stated that the blind fish was an 

 aberrant form of the Cyprinodontes. 



Thus all those authors who have expressed an opinion 

 as to the position which the fish should hold in the natu- 

 ral system, have come to the same conclusions as to the 

 great group, division, or order, into which it should be 

 placed. For all the terms used above, when reduced to 

 any one system, bring Amblyopsis into the same general 

 position in the system ; its nearest allies being the min- 

 nows, pickerels, shiners, and herrings ; and unless a care- 

 ful study of its skeleton should prove to the contrary, we 

 must, from present data, consider the family containing 

 Amblyopsis as more nearly allied to the C)prinodontcs, 

 or our common minnows having teeth on the jaws, than 

 to any other family, difiering from them principally by 

 the structure of the several parts of the alimentary canal 

 and the forward position of its termination. 



I have thus far mentioned only one species of blind 

 fish from the cave, \.\vi Amblyopsis spclaus. The waters 

 of the cave not only contain another species of blind 

 fish, differing from Amblyopsis in several particulars, 

 especially by its smaller size and by its being without 

 ventral fins, which I have identified as the Typhliclitliys 

 subtcrraiicns of Dr. Girard ; but also a fish with ^'■ell 

 developed eyes, as proved by the account given by Dr. 

 Tellkampf, and by the drawing of a fish found by Prof 

 Wyman, in 1856, in the stomach of an Amblyopsis he 

 was dissecting. It is very much to be regretted that the 

 specimen is not now to be found, and that it was so 

 much acted on by the gastric juice as to destroy all ex- 

 ternal characters by which it could be identified from the 

 drawing which Prof. Wyman made of it, which is of 

 about natural size. Dr. Tellkampf remarks on the fish 

 with eyes are as follows : — 



" Besides the colourless blind fish, there are also others 

 found in the cave, which are black, commonly known by 

 the name of mud fish. I saw a dark-coloured fish in the 

 water, but did not succeed in catching it. The latter are 

 said to have eyes, and arc entirely dissimilar to the blind 

 fish." 



The name " mud fish," given to this lish with eyes, and 

 the statement that it is of a dark colour, together with the 

 drawing by Prof. Wyman of the fish found in the stomach 

 of the blind fish, showing the position of the dorsal fin to 

 be the same as in the fish commonly called mud fish in 

 the fresh waters of the Middle, Western, and Southern 

 States, perhaps indicates the fish with eyes to be a species 

 of Molanuro. This fish is called mud fish from the habit 

 of burying itself in the mud, tail first, to the depth of two 

 to four inches, and of remaining buried in the mud in our 

 western ditches during a time of drought. This habit, 

 perhaps, in a measure fits it for a subterranean life. The 

 occurrence of a fish belonging to the same family with 

 the blind fish, but with well developed eyes, in the subter- 

 ranean streams in Alabama, however, renders it probable 

 that the cave fish with eyes may be the same or an allied 

 species, and the drawing by Prof. Wyman would answer 

 equally as well for it. 



The fact that the Amblyopsis succeeded in catching a 

 fish of probably very rapid and darting movements, shows 



! Naturalist^ 



t Indianopolis Daily Joit 



Mag. Nat. Hist., Nov. 1871, 



t SilUman's Journal, p. 



• ■>■■ P- 579. 'S71 

 al of Septembci 



JS71. Reprinted in Ann. 



that the tactile sense is well developed, and that the Wind 

 fish must be very active in the pursuit of its prey ; pro- 

 bably guided by the movement which the latter makes in 

 the water so sensibly influencing the delicate tactile organs 

 of the blind fish that it is enabled to follow rapidly ; while 

 the pursued, not having the sense of touch so fully deve- 

 loped, is constantly encountering obstacles in the dark- 

 ness. 



In describing the habits of the blind fish, Dr. Tellkampf 

 says : — 



" It is found solitary, and is very difficult to be caught, 

 since it requires the greatest caution to bring the net be- 

 neath them without driving them away. At the slightest 

 motion of the water they dait off a short distance and 

 usually stop. Then is the time to follow them rapidly 

 with a net and lift them out of the water. They are 

 mostly found near stones or rocks which lie upon the bot- 

 tom, but seldom near the surface of the water." 



Prof. Cope, in describing the habits of the blind fish 

 which he obtained in a stream that passes into the Wy- 

 andotte Cave, though he entered it by means of a well in 

 the vicinity of the cave, says that — 



" If these Amblyopscs be not alarmed they come to the 

 surface to feed, and swim in full sight like white aquatic 

 ghosts. They are then easily taken by the hand or net, 

 if perfect silence be preserved, for they are unconscious of 

 the presence of an enemy except through the sense of 

 hearing. This sense is, however, evidently very acute, for 

 at any noise they turn suddenly downward, and hide 

 beneath stones, &c., at the bottom. They must take 

 much of their food near the surface, as the life of the 

 depths is apparently very sparse. This habit is rendered 

 easy by the structure of the fish, for the mouth is directed 

 upwards, and the head is very flat above, thus allowing 

 the mouth to be at the surface." 



The blind fish has a single ovary, in common with 

 several genera of viviparous Cyprinodontes. In three 

 female specimens of Amblyopsis which I have opened, 

 the ovary was distended with large eggs, but no signs of 

 the embryo could be traced. In these three speci- 

 mens it was the right ovary that was de\-elopcd, 

 and this was by the side of the stomach, and did not 

 extend beyond it. The number of eggs contained in 

 the ovary was not far from one hundred in the spe- 

 cimen examined. As the embryos develop, the mass 

 probably pushes further back in the cavity and also ex- 

 tends the abdominal walls. That this fish is viviparous is 

 proved by the statement made by IVIr. Thompson before 

 the Belfast Natural History Society'*" that one of the 

 blind fishes from the cave, four and a half inches long, 

 " was put in water as soon as captured, where it gave birth 

 to nearly twenty young, which swam about for some time, 

 but soon died. These, with the exception of one or two, 

 were carefully preserved, and fifteen of them are now 

 before us (at the meeting, I wish they were here), they 

 were each four lines in length." 



It is singular that no mention is made regarding these 

 young, as to the presence or absence of eyes, and, as if it 

 was fated that this important point should remain un- 

 noticed as long as possible, it is equally singular that Dr. 

 Steindachner omitted to e.^camine some very young speci- 

 mens which he received from a friend a few months since 

 and sent to the Vienna iSIuseum, where they will remain 

 unexamined until he returns there. I saw the Doctor 

 only a week after these, to me, interesting specimens had 

 been sent abroad, and he was as grieved as I was dis- 

 appointed at my being just too late to take advantage of 

 them. 



At what time the young are born has never been stated, 

 but judging from such data as I can at present command, 

 I think that it must be during the months of September 



Annals and Mag. of Natural History, vol. 



1844. 



