644 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



The dorsal and anal finlets are not separate as described and 

 figured in Oceanic Ichthyology, and the last dorsal and anal rays 

 not so completely attached as the preceding ones, a character 

 correctly illustrated in the figure quoted. The anal fin commences 

 further behind the origin of the dorgal than there shown. If the 

 pores above referred to emit light, it seems very probable that the 

 plates or tubercles serve as reflectors, and one may therefore 

 readily believe Poey's statement (fide Goode and Bean) that when 

 one of these fishes is brought to the surface it appears to be sur- 

 rounded by a globe of phosphorescent light. 



"Dr. Liitken calls attention to the fact that the Gernpylidce 

 possess a system of dermal ribs or subcutaneous ribs, composed of 

 slender bony filaments close-set, directed backward and upward, 

 and backward and downward from the median line. This character 

 has been verified in Thy r sites, Nealotus, and Gempylus."* 



Our example of Ruvettus possesses similar bones but appar- 

 ently of simpler type : they extend from behind the head to 

 nearly the middle of the spinous dorsal beyond which point they 

 cannot be traced. Situated immediately beneath the lateral line 

 they are directed backwards and upwards, and appear to be the 

 ossified terminations of the ligaments which arise from the 

 vertebrae. 



How nearly the habits of the fish in the Pacific coincide with 

 the accounts of writers on Atlantic specimens the following com- 

 parison will show. 



In the "Atoll of Funafuti " the Palu is described as being caught 

 only in the deepest water and while Mr. Louis Becke remarks 

 that it is not unusual to fish in one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred fathoms, he cites as remarkable that he once caught five 

 Palu in one night, in eighty fathoms only. All Palu are fished 

 for at night. 



The Escolar, (Atlantic name) has been taken at depths as great 

 as three hundred and four hundred fathoms, and can be taken only 

 at night in September and the early part of October. 



The Palu or Oil Fish as it is also called (both in the Pacific 

 and the Atlantic) is prized above all other fish, and its effect as 

 a purgative has earned for it the name ' Te icka ne peka ' by 

 the Line Islanders. Of the Escolar, Lowef writes : " The flesh 

 of this very singular species is said to be extremely rich, and the 

 bones, it is affirmed, abound in an oil or marrow, which, when 

 they are sucked incautiously, produces speedy diarrhoea." 



* Jordan and Evermann Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 47, 1896, p. 877. 

 t Lowe Fishes of Madeira, Trans. Zool. Soc., ii. p. 181. 



