HAPLOMI 6 1 9 



both north and south of the Ohio Eiver ; it is common in the 

 Eiver Styx of the Mammoth Cave. Typhlichthys subterraneus 

 is found with bhe latter species in the caves east of the 

 Mississippi, but is confined to the south side of the Ohio Eiver, 

 whilst T. (^Troglichthys) rosae is found in the caves west of the 

 Mississippi Eiver. Oi Amblyopsis spelaea, the late Professor Cope 

 has observed : " If these Amblyopses be not alarmed, they come 

 to the surface to feed, and swim in full sight, like white aquatic 

 ghosts. They are then easily taken by the hand or net, if perfect 

 silence is preserved, for they are unconscious of the presence of an 

 enemy except through the medium of hearing ; this sense, however, 

 is evidently very acute, for at any noise they turn suddenly down- 

 wards, and hide beneath stones, etc., on the bottom." Dr. Carman 

 thinks, on the contrary, that such a sense can hardly be developed 

 in recesses where we are accustomed to think any sounds other than 

 those made by the rippling or dripping water are almost unknown, 

 and that it is through the sense of touch, and not through 

 hearing, that the Fish is disturbed. In fact, the head is provided 

 with a great number of tactile papillae, arranged in transverse 

 ridges, provided with nervous filaments, which evidently compen- 

 sate the loss of the visual organ.-' 



Fam. 13. Stephanoberycidae. — This Family has hitherto been 

 placed near the Berycidae, among the Acanthopterygii, but there 

 are no spinous rays in the dorsal and anal fins ; and the ventrals, 

 formed of one simple and four or five branched rays, are abdominal. 

 The genus Stephcmoheryx, with two species from the Atlantic, at 

 depths of 535 to 2949 fathoms, is characterised by a large, thick, 

 cavernous head, with thin bony spine-bearing ridges, a large 

 mouth bordered by the protractile praemaxillaries, behind which 

 are the large maxillaries, a short dorsal and a short anal, opposed to 

 each other behind the ventrals, and the body covered with feebly 

 imbricated scales, each bearing in the centre one or several erect 

 spines. The largest specimen measures 6 inches. Mcdacosarciis, 

 a small Fish from the Pacific, at depths of 2350 and 2425 

 fathoms, is very closely allied to Stephanoberyx, but its scales are 

 very thin and cycloid. The striking resemblance which the head 



' On the history and habits of the Blind Fishes of the Mammoth Cave, cf. Putnam, 

 -Amer. Nat. 1872, p. 6, and Froc. Boston Soc. xvii. 1875, p. 222. For a recent 

 ■account of the eyes of the Amblyopsidae, cf. C. H. Eigenmann's paper in Arch. f. 

 ErUwickelungsmech. viii. 1899, p. 545, to which is appended a complete biblio- 

 .graphical index to the subject. 



