Fishes. 6989 



facts, however, regarding the mane-like appendage, and the rapidity 

 of motion to which I have alhided, are still fresh in my memory. 

 My best thanks are due to Mr. George Trimingham, the captor, for 

 the generous manner in which he placed the fish at my disposal. 



J. Mathew Jones. 



Note on an Ophioid Fish lately taken in the Island of Bermuda, 

 which appears to he new to Science. By Edward Newman, 

 Memb. Imp. L. C. Acad. 



I hope that zoologists will not consider me assuming the office of 

 a teacher if 1 add a few memoranda on the family of fishes to which 

 Mr. Jones' specimen belongs : if such should, however, unfortunately 

 prove the case, — should my readers remind me that my editorial 

 privileges scarcely extend to the right of appending notes to the pro- 

 ductions of a much more able ichthyologist than myself, — I can only 

 plead in mitigation that this family of fishes is one 



" In which ray spirit doth take delight," 



fi-om their evident approach to that much-abused sea serpent, in the 

 existence of which I have ever entertained the most unwavering 

 belief. 



The family Cepolidae or riband fishes is so named from the Cepola 

 rubescens of Linneus, the red snake-fish of Couch, described in the 

 fourteenth volume of the * Linnean Transactions,' page 76, a small 

 snake-like fish not uncommon off the coast of Cornwall, but of which 

 the largest preserved specimen is less than twenty inches in length : 

 the body is very long, thin, compressed laterally and riband-shaped, 

 not cylindrical, like the body of a snake, and the dorsal, caudal and anal 

 fins appear to combine in forming a continuous fringe of fin extending 

 from behind the head to the extreme caudal extremity, and thence 

 returning along the belly and reaching nearly to the throat. 



Of this family six species, belonging to as many genera, have been 

 found in the British seas : — 1, the red snake-fish {Cepola rubescens) ; 

 2, the Vaagmger or Deal-fish {Trachypterus bogmarus) ; 3, the silvery 

 hair-tail (Trichiurus leptwus) ; 4, the scabbard- fish [Lepidopus 

 argyreus) ; 5, Hawken's Gymnetrus {Gymnetrus Hawkenii) ; and 6, 

 Banks' Gymnetrus {Regalecus Banksii), which I think identical with 



