58 
SYNOPSIS OF THE FAMILY HETEROPYGII. 
Boston Society of Natural History. 
2 specimens. No. 840. Half grown. Mammoth Cave. 
Peabody Academy of Science. 
1 specimen. No. 520. Adult $ . Mammoth Cave. Presented to Essex Insti- 
tute in 1851 by N. Silsbee. 
Other specimens. Dr. Gunther mentions six specimens and a skele- 
ton in the British Museum. Mr. Thompson, an adult and newly born 
young in the collection of the Natural History Society of Belfast. 
Dr. Steindachner has recently sent an adult and eight young to 
the Vienna Museum. The first specimen of which we have any 
record was presented to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 
delphia; the second is the one described by DeKay and then in the 
Lyceum of Natural History of New York. Prof. Cope obtained three 
specimens from the waters of Wyandotte Cave in Indiana. Dr. Tell- 
kampf had several specimens from the Mammoth Cave, and it is prob- 
able that specimens exist in nearly all the principal museums and in 
many private collections, as about all that have been caught in the 
Mammoth Cave for years have been sold by the guides to visitors. 
Habits. But little is known of the habits of the large blindfish. 
Dr. Tellkampf states that they are solitaiy ; on the slightest motion 
of the water they dart off a short distance, and that they are mostly 
found near stones or rocks on the bottom, and seldom come to the 
surface of the water. Prof. Cope states that if they are not alarmed 
the}^ come to the surface to feed, swim in full sight, and can then be 
easily captured if perfect silence is preserved. He also thinks that 
they are principally surface feeders. 
In the stomachs of several that I have opened the only remains 
found were those of Crayfish. In one specimen, opened by Dr. Wy- 
man, a small fish with well developed eyes was found in the stomach. 
(See Amer. Nat., vi, p. 13, PI. 1, fig. 13.) 
The eggs are well developed in September, and the young are born 
about the middle to last of October. The young when born are half 
an inch or less in length, and are idtliout external eyes. (See Amer. 
Nat., Feb., 1872. The young there mentioned may possibly be those 
of Typhlichthys.) 
Typhliclithys Girard, Procd. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., p. 63, 1859. 
Eyes rudimentary and imbedded under the skin. 
Head. The same arrangement of rows of sensitive papillae as in 
Amblyopsis, and the spaces between the papillae with granulations as 
in that genus. (The subcutaneous canals probably exist, but have 
not yet been made out.) 
Teeth, as in Amblyopsis, on the maxillaries and palatines. 
Body with papilla over opercular opening, and with the papillary 
ridges on the sides as in Amblyopsis. 
Pyloric appendages one on each side as in Amblyopsis, but of 
