138 Seupentine Apodals. FISHES. Opuisuboids. 
alluded to by Brydone, and found that they were not 
varies with the genus. The anal is absent. The veu- 
Greek, but a mere jargon not traceable to any known 
trals are sub-brachial, and in some are small, and 
language. It would be well to compare them with 
composed of six rays ; in others very long, and con- 
Hebrew, as they may be a remnant of the ancient 
sisting of only one or two rays. The jointed rays 
Phoenician tongue. Strabo describes this fishery, 
are not branched, and the raj's of all the fins are so 
which he believes was as ancient as the days of Ulysses. 
fragile that a complete specimen has scarcely ever been 
The flesh of the Sword-fish is excellent, resembles beef, 
obtained. The mouth is small and protractile. The 
and is generally dressed in form of steaks. It is pre- 
skeleton is fibrous, but has little compactness, and is 
served by salting, and the fins are prepared in Sicil_y, 
easily injured. The stomach is prolonged below the 
and sold under the name of Callo. The highly-esteemed 
pylorus in form of a conical bag, and the pancreatic 
Urceon of the ancients was cut from the tail. 
caeca are very numerous. There is no air-bladder. 
The great strength of the Sword-fish renders it a 
formidable enemy, and it is able to use its beak with 
fatal eftect. It sometimes drives this weapon through 
The genera are — Trachypterus ; Regalecus ; Gymnetrm ; and 
Gtylepliorus. 
the planks of a ship, and specimens of beams so trans- 
The unusual forms of these fishes render them inter- 
fixed are not unfrequent in museums.* 
esting. They are well named Tsenioids or Ribbon- 
fishes, because of their thinness and length, which in 
Family XXXIIL— T.®NI0IDS {Tccnicedm). 
some extends to between twenty and thirty feet. The 
Plate 11, fig. 57. 
tenderness of their fins, and the brittleness of their 
bones, unfit them for contending with a rough sea, and 
These are sword-shaped or tape-like fishes, with a 
it is probable that their habitual residence is in the still 
smooth nacry skin, containing delicate microscopical 
waters of considerable depths; yet their colours are 
scales, and bands of soft or hard tubercles imbedded 
brilliant and beautiful. They are obtained chiefly 
in the thickness of the skin. Some have rows of super- 
after storms, by which they are thrown disabled on the 
ficial bony shields. The dorsal fin extends nearly the 
shore. The British species are the Vaagmeer {Tra- 
whole length of tlie back, and its front rays, standing 
chyptei'us logmarus), and Bank’s Oar-fish {Regalecus 
on the head or nape, are generally tall. The caudal 
Banhsii). 
OiiDEE V.— MALACOPTERES or PHYSOSTOMES. 
Malacofterous fishes have their fins supported by 
Malacopterous Abdominals; the ventrals when 
jointed or branching rays, not associated with spines as 
in the preceding order ; though in some cases, and more 
present in this order being situated on the belly. 
especially in the Cyprinoid family, one or more of the 
dorsal rays are stout, round, tapering, and stiff, losing 
by age their joints, which are visible in the young fish ; 
Family I. — OPHISUROIDS {Ophisurida). 
Plate 2, fig. 8; Plate 1, fig. 5. 
but in these instances the characteristic ventral spine 
This familv belongs to the Sekpentifokm Apodals, 
of the Acanthopteres is absent. Another important 
a group of fish in which the predominant aspect is that 
character of this order, is the 2 y>’csence of a pneumatic 
of a long thick worm, covered with a slimy skin, for 
tube leading from the cavity of the air-bladder to the 
the most part scaleless, but in two or three families 
oesophagus or stomach — hence the appellation of Phy- 
producing small imbedded scales. The fins, generally 
sostomes. The gills are free, with a single operculated 
long and low, are supported by simple rays, not jointed. 
external opening on each side, these openings being in 
but of a very soft texture. Some groups want the pec- 
one or two groups only; approximated on the throat so 
torals as well as the ventrals, and are therefore termed 
as to appear like one ; the arterial bulb is valvular at 
its origin only ; the scales are cj'cloid or absent ; and in 
general the bones contain radiated, osseous corpuscles, 
these organisms being absent merely in a few minor 
groups of this order. 
The Malacopteres have been divided into two sub- 
orders by the presence or absence of ventral fins, 
namely, into Sekpentifokm Apodals {Apodes) and 
* The most recent instance that has come to our knowledge 
is that of the barque Maudot Tynemouth, which sprung a leak 
on her voyage homewards from Ceylon. She arrived in the 
Tyne towards the close of May, 1860, and being put into the 
middle dock for repairs, one of the planks under the bilge was 
found to have been perforated by the beak of a Sword-fi.sh, a 
piece of the beak, nine and a half inches long, having been 
found still sticking in the wood. — Newspaper paragraiih. 
both abrachial and apodal, A few genera are destitute 
not only of these lateral limbs, but also of vertical fins, 
and therefore exhibit examples of fish wholly without 
fins. Ribs are not developed in any of the Serpentiform 
Apodals, except in the Congeroids, which have an 
extraordinary number of these processes. 
The Ophisuroids have csecal stomachs, that is, a bag- 
like protuberance beneath the pylorus of that viscus, but 
they have no pyloric cteca. Dr. Kaup, in his recent 
very complete review of the Apodal sub-order,* divides 
it into two sections, one having the posterior openings 
of the nostril -tubes exterior to the mouth, and clearly 
visible on the side of the face ; the other having the 
* Catalogue of Apodal Fish in the British Museum, 1856. 
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