FISHES. 



247 



Along the coasts of Florida, and also upon the coasts of southern California, are 

 found fishes which belong to a genus apparently related to the Lopholatilus and 

 Latihis, but which is distinguished by the greater number of rays of the dorsal 

 and anal fins. The species of the east is known as the Caulolatilus chrysops; 

 and there is no proper English name, although the Spanish name, blanquillo, is par- 

 tially used. The species of the west coast, however, Caulolatilus jyrinceps, is quite 

 abundant from Monterey southwards, and is known under the name of white-fish or 

 yellow-tail. It may be noted that white-fish involves nearly the same allusion in Eng- 

 lish as blanquillo does in Spanish. 



Other fishes related to the Latilidse have been segregated in families called 

 Bathtmasteeid^ and MalacanthiDvE,' and these are very near indeed, and might 

 even belong to the same family. Still others, distinguished as the families Peeco- 



PHIDID^, NoTOTHENIID^, HaEPAGIFEEID^, OpISTHOGNATHID^, PsEUDOCHEOMIDID.a;, 



IcosTEiD^, and Sillaginid^e, have also been approximated to the Latilidae, and, 

 indeed, combined with still others in one " family " called Teachistid^ by Dr. Gtinther, 

 but several of them, at least, are not at all nearly related. 



One fish that perhaps belongs near some of these just mentioned deserves notice, as 

 it manifests an apparent anomaly; it can take-in, whole, another fish perhaps eight to 

 twelve times larger than itself ! 



Chiasmodon niffer, or the black swallower, is the fish that can perfonn this 

 seemingly impossible feat. It has no near relatives, and is the type of a peculiar 

 family — the Chiasmod ONTiDiB. 

 Its body is elongated, of nearly 

 uniform thickness to or behind 

 the anus, and thence slightly 

 tapering into the tail ; the skin 

 is naked; the head sub-conic 

 and narrowed forwards; the 

 mouth is very deeply cleft, ex- 

 tending behind the eyes, and 

 armed with long, pointed, and 

 in part movable teeth. Thei-e 

 are two dorsal fins, the first 

 having eleven slender spines; 

 the second is elongated, and 

 the anal is like the latter; the ventrals are thoracic, and have each a spine 

 and five rays. Such is its appearance with an empty stomach. But it espies a fish 

 many times larger than itself, but which, nevertheless, may be managed ; it darts upon 

 it, seizes it by the tail, and gradually climbs over it with its jaws, first using one and 

 then the other ; as the captive is taken in, the stomach and integuments stretch out, 

 and at last the entire fish is passed through the mouth and into the stomach, and the 

 distended belly appears as a great bag, projecting out far backwards and forwards, over 

 which is the swallower, with the ventrals dislocated, and far away from their normal 

 place. The walls of the stomach and belly have been so stretched that they are 

 transparent, and the species of the fish can be discerned within. But such rapacity 

 is more than the captor itself can stand. At length decomposition sets in, the swal- 

 lower is forced belly upwards, and the imprisoned gas, as in a balloon, takes it 

 upwards from the depths to the surface of the ocean, and there, perchance, it may be 



Fig. 140. — Chiasmodon niger which has swallowed a large Scopelus. 



