ElBBON FISH. 369 



tho knives appeared split and ragged, reminding one of tlie broken and 

 frayed wings of tlie worker honey bee, after she has passed a few weeks in 

 the severe labors of the honey harvest. — American Journal of Microscopy. 



THE RIBBON FISH. 



Frank Biickland, in a recent letter to Land and Water ^ Q&jii : "I have 

 received, through the kindness of a correspondent at Nice, a very interest- 

 ing and remarkable specimen of a ribbon fish. I make him out to be a re- 

 ■galicus. I have never before seen one of these most curious fishes in the flesh. 

 It measures five feet, is about a quarter of an inch thick, and is of a silvery 

 hue, not unlike the color of the 'silver-hair tail.' Upon the top of the 

 head there are filaments, which, when stretched to their full, are about eight 

 inches long. The head is very remarkable ; altogether it is not unlike the 

 shortened head of a horse. The mouth is prehensile, and so peculiarly 

 formed that it is quite worthy of a figure ; the eyes are very large and cir- 

 cular ; the iris of a lustrous silver color. Behind the head the body is two 

 and a half inches deep, in the middle two inches, at the tail a quarter of an 

 inch. "When held up to the light it is almost transparent; the vertebra} 

 ■can with difiiculty be seen, but with the movement of the fingers each ver- 

 tebra will give a slight crack at the junction with its neighbor. The ver- 

 tebra) are longest and thickest towards the- tail end, at which there are 

 ■sharp spines. It is covered everywhere with a fine silvery powder, which 

 readily comes off in the hand. It has a crest of about an inch in height, 

 which runs down the whole of the back. The rays forming the crest are 

 united to double pillars of very slender bone. In substance it is very deli- 

 cate, and begins to dry and harden almost immediatel}" on exjjosure to the 

 air. 



"I cannot find much about this fish in any of my books. This family 

 of ribbon-shape form consists of seven genera and twenty-six species. Mr. 

 Swainson remarks of it as follows : 



"'It contains the most singular and extraordinary fishes in creation. ■ 

 The form of the body, when compared to fishes better known, is much like 

 that of an eel, the length of the body being in the same proportion to the 

 breadth; but then it is generally so much compressed that these creatures 

 have acquired the popular name of ribbon fish, lath, or deal fish. The body 

 indeed, is often not thicker, except in the middle, than is a sword, and being- 

 covered with the richest silver, and of great length, the undulating motions 

 of these fishes in the sea must be resplendent and beautiful beyond meas- 

 ure. But the wonders of the mighty deep are almost hidden from the eye 

 of man. These meteoric silver-coated fishes ajDpear to live in the greatest 

 depths, and it is only at long intervals, and after a succession of tempests, 

 that a solitary individual is east upon the shore with its delicate body torn 



4 



