44 MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES 



depth, such sounds having been variously compared by 

 fishermen to bellowing, buzzing, purring, and whistling. 

 It has been suggested that the reputed song of the 

 Mythological Sirens took its origin from the noises 

 emitted by shoals of this fish. The casts of two fine 

 Scicense, measuring each about five feet with a weight 

 of eighty pounds, are on view in the Buckland Museum. 

 A young spirit-preserved specimen will also be found 

 among the series forming the Day Collection. Many of the 

 exotic members of the genus Scicena ascend the mouths 

 of rivers into perfectly fresh water. 



FAMILY XVI.— HAIRTAILS {Trichiurida). 



Body elongated, much compressed, scales rudimentary or 

 absent ; the gill openings wide ; teeth well developed ; the 

 dorsal and anals fins greatly elongated, many rayed ; 

 ventral fins absent or rudimentary ; caudal fin sometimes 

 wanting ; branchiostegal rays seven or eight in number. 



The flattened, somewhat Eel-like fishes comprised in this 

 family are represented in British waters by two species, 

 both of which are of rare occurrence in these latitudes, 

 their native habitat being the warmer regions of the 

 Atlantic. The first species, known as the Silver Hairtail 

 (Trichiurus lepturus), No. 55, taking its name from the 

 almost hair-like tenuity of its caudal termination, attains to 

 a length of about two feet six inches, its colour, when fresh, 

 being, as described by the late Mr. Frank Buckland, 

 comparable to that of a new shilling or a lady's satin 

 shoe. This silvery pigment, which invests the whole body 

 in the form of a very delicate membrane, becomes so 

 readily detached after death, that it is almost impossible 

 to preserve an example representing any approach to the 



