4i6 



NATURE 



\Sept. 19, 1872 



In 1859* Dr. Girard described a blind fish, received by 

 the Smithsonian Institution from J. E. Younglove, Esq., 

 who obtained it "from a well near Bowling Green, Ky." 

 The f,encral appearance of this fish, which was only one 

 and a half inch in lenglli, was that of Amblyopsis 

 spclictis, but it differed from that species in several 

 characters, especially l^y the absence of ventral fins. Dr. 

 Girard therefore referred the fish to a distinct genus 

 under the name of Typliliclithys\ subterraiunis. Dr. 

 GiintherJ considers this fish a variety of Amblyopsis 

 spi-hiKS, and records the specimen in the British Museum 

 " from the Mammoth Cave," as half-grown. § 



By the kindness cf Prof. Agassiz, I have been enabled 

 to examine nine specimens o( blind Jish iL'iihout ventrals, 

 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Seven of these 

 were collected in the Mammoth Cave by Mr. Alpheus 

 Hyatt, in September 1S59. One was from Moulton, 

 Lawrence County, Alabama, presented by Mr. Thomas 

 Peters ; and another from Lebanon, Wilson Co., Tennes- 

 see, presented by Mr. J. M. Safford. It is not stated 

 whether these latter came from wells or caves, but 

 probably from wells. They are all of about one size, one 

 and one-haif to two inches in length, and are constant in 

 their characters. Moreover, four of the seven specimens 

 from the Mammoth Cave were females with eggs. These 

 eggs were as large in proportion as those from Ambly- 

 opsis. The ovary was single, and situated on the right 

 side of the stomach, as in Amblyopsis. The difference 

 in the number of eggs was very remarkable, each of the 

 four specimens examined having but about thirty eggs in 

 the ovar>', while in three females of Amblyopsis (all, 

 however, of nearly three times the size of Typhlichtliys) 

 there were about one hundred eggs in each. As in both 

 species there were no signs of the embryos in the eggs, it 

 is not probable that any of the eggs had been developed 

 and the young excluded, nor is it at all likely th.it tlie 

 great variation in the number of eggs would simply indi- 

 cate different ages. For these reasons, taken in connec- 

 tion with the absence of ventral fins, I have no hesitation 

 in accepting Dr. Girard's name as valid for this genus, of 

 which we thus far know of but one species, « ith a subter- 

 ranean range from the waters of the Mammoth Cave, 

 south, to the northern portion of Alabama. In this con- 

 nection it would be most interesting to know the relations 

 cf the "blind fishes" said to have been found in Michi- 

 gan. For thus far we have Typhliclithys limited to the 

 central and southern portion of the subterranean region, 

 Amblyopsis to the central, and the species in the northern 

 portion undetermined. 



In iS53,on his return from a tour through the southern 

 and western states. Prof Agassiz gave a summary of some 

 of his ichthyological discoveries m a letter to Prof. J. D. 

 Dana.il In this letter are the following remarks : — 



•' 1 would mention foremost a new ger.us which I shall 

 call Chologastt-y, very similar in general appearance to the 

 blind fish" of the Mammoth Cave, though provided with 

 e)es; it has, like Amblyopsis, \.\\e. anal aperture far ad- 

 vanced under the throat, but is entirely deprived of ventral 

 fins ; a very strange and unexpected combination of 

 characters. 1 know but one species, Ch. coi nutus Ag. 

 It is a small fish scarcely three inches long, living in the 

 ditches of the rice fields in South Carolina. I derive its 

 specific name from the singular form of the snout, which 

 has two horn-like projections above." 



This is the only inforination ever published regarding 

 this interesting fish, and the only specimens known are 

 those on which Prof. Agassiz based the above remarks. 



The only specimen known of this second species was 

 drawn from a well in Lebanon, Tenn., and presented to 



" Proceedings Acad. Nat. Sci. Phllad., p. 63. t BKnd fish. 



t dialogue of Fishes in the British Museum, vol. vli. p. 2, 1868. 



§ The largest speciincn I have seen of Typhlichtliys is one and seventeen- 

 twentieths inches in length, ajid the smallest Amblyopsis one and eighteen- 

 twentieths inches. 



n Pu Wished in American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xvi. (2d series) 

 p. 134, 1853. 



the Museum by Mr. J. M. Safford, Jan. 1854. It is a 

 more slender fish than C. cornutus, but the intestine 

 follows the same course, and the four pyloric appendages 

 are present as in that species. 



In the genus Clioloi^astL-r\ we have all the family cha- 

 racters as well expressed as in the blind species, though 

 it differs from .-Imblyopsis and Tvphlichlhys by the pre- 

 sence of eyes, the absence of papillary ridges on the head 

 and body, and by the longer intestine and double the 

 number of pyloric appendages, as well as by the position 

 of the ovary ; and agrees with Tvphlicltthys by the ab- 

 sence of ventral fins. Amblvopsis and Ty'plilichthys are 

 nearly colourless, while Choloi^astcr Ay^assizii is of a 

 brownish colour, similar to many of the minnows, and C. 

 coniutus is brownish yellow, with dark, longitudinal bands. 



Among the most interesting points in the history of this 

 genus is the fact of its occurring in two widely different lo- 

 calities, C. Agassizii having been found in a well in the 

 same vicinity (probably in the same well) with a specimen 

 of Typhliclitlivs, and undoubtedly belonging to the same 

 subterranean fauna west of the Appalachian ridge, while 

 C. cornutus belongs to the southern coast fauna of the 

 eastern side of that mountain chain, and is thus far the 

 only species of the family known beyond the limits of the 

 great subterranean region of the United States. 



Having now given an outline of the structure, habi's, 

 and distribution of the four species belonging to the 

 family and recapitulated the known fiicts, we are better 

 able to consider the bearings of the peculiar adaptation 

 of the blind fishes, in the Mammoth and other caves, to 

 the circumstances under which they exist. 



Prof. Cope, in stating, in his account of the blind fish 

 of the Wyandotte Cave, " that the projecting under jaw 

 and upward direction of the mouth renders it easy for the 

 fish to feed at the surface of the water, where it must ob- 

 tain much of its food," suggests that : — 



" This structure also probably explains the fact of its 

 being the sole representative of the fishes in subterranean 

 waters. No doubt many other forms were carried into 

 the caverns since the waters first found their way there, 

 but most of them were like those of our present rivers, 

 deep water or bottom feeders. Such fishes would starve 

 in a cave river, where much of the food is carried to them 



on the surface of the stream The shore minnows 



arc their nearest allies, and many of them have the up- 

 turned mouth and flat head Fishes of this, or a 



similar family, enclosed in subterranean waters years ago, 

 would be more likely to live than those of the other, and 

 the darkness would be very apt to be the cause of the 

 atrophy of the organs of sight seen in the Amblyopsis" 



This suggestion was undoubtedly hastily made by Prof. 

 Cope when writing the letter which was printed in the 

 Indianapolis yomiial, and were it not that the article has 

 been reprinted in the "Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History," I should not criticise the statement made in an 

 off-hand letter for publication in a newspaper ; for with 

 Prof. Cope's knowledge of fishes it could simply be a hasty 

 thought which he put on paper, when he suggests that it 

 is because the Cyprinodonlcs have a mouth directed up- 

 wards and are surface feeders that they were better adap- 

 ted to a subterranean life than other fishes, and hence 

 maintained an existence, while other species, which he 

 supposes were introduced into the subterranean streams 

 at the same time, died out. 



If the fishes of the subterranean streams came from 

 adjoining rivers, why were not many of the Percoid'^, 

 Cyprinoids, and other forms, that are as essentially suiface 

 feeders as the Cypiinodontes (many of the latter ara 

 purely "mud feeders"), as capable of maintaining an 

 existence in the subterranean waters as any species of the 

 latter ? Neither is it necessary for us to assume that the 

 structure cf the fish should be adapted to feeding on the 



* Literally "bile-stomach;" probalily named from the yellow colour ot 



