OPHIDIIDsE— RIBBAND-FISHES 



353 



•obtain its prey in the ordinary manner, and its mode of feeding therefore needs 

 explanation. Possibly the explanation is to be found in the fact that the heads of 

 these fishes are furnished with an electrical organ, which is of a type different from 

 that of any other electric fish. The power possessed by the star-gazers of emitting 

 •electric shocks appears to have been familiar for many years to the Virginian 

 fishermen, but it is only lately that it became known to men of science. It is 

 suggested that these fishes may kill their prey by electric discharges, and then 

 catch them as they fall in the upturned mouth. Some support to this theory is 

 afforded by the fact that the stomach of one specimen contained a number of small 

 swift-swimming fishes. 



Ww$W 



ANGLER-FISH. 



To the same section belongs the family Ophidiidce, the more 

 typical members of which take their title from their long, eel-like 

 bodies, furnished with continuous median fins, while they are further characterised 

 by the frequent absence of the pectorals, and the more or less aborted condition of 

 the pelvic pair. In the banded Ophidium barbatum, which is mainly a Mediter- 

 ranean fish, although occasionally wandering into more northern latitudes, the 

 pelvic fins are reduced to a pair of forked filaments placed near the throat. These 

 fishes are probably degraded relatives of the blennies. 



The ribband-fishes of the families Trachypteridce and Lophotidce, 

 which constitute by themselves a section of the spiny-finned group, 

 are so called on account of their extremely elongated and strap-like form and large 

 size. Of the two British species, the deal -fish (Trachypterus arcticus) has the 

 small, fan-like tail-fin set at an angle to the main axis of the body, as if it had 

 been distorted, while the oar-fish (Regalecus banksi) is without this fin, and has 

 the front rays of the dorsal fin curving forwards like the crest of a cockatoo. 

 vol. m. — 23 



Ribband-Fishes. 



