LONG-TAILS AND FLAT-FISHES. 
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of life, frequently swimming near the surface in large shoals, when they will at 
times suddenly descend to the bottom, where they bury themselves with surpris¬ 
ing rapidity by the aid of the elongated horn-like extremity of the elongated lower 
jaw. During ebb-tide, numbers remain buried at the depth of five or six inches in 
the sand till the next flood; and it is then that they are dug out with rakes or 
other implements. When swimming, they are followed by shoals of mackerel 
and porpoises. 
The last group of the family is represented by Conyrodus of the 
Conyrodus. Australian coasts, and Haliophis from the Red Sea, both of which 
differ from the sand-eels by the narrower gill-openings, and the union of the two 
idll-membranes beneath the throat. 
o 
The Long-Tails,— Family Macruridae. 
The fourth family of the symmetrically formed soft-finned fishes is typically 
represented by the genus Macrurus, as well as by several allied forms. These fish 
are characterised by the body ending in a long, compressed, and tapering tail, covered 
with spiny, keeled, or striated scales, and unprovided with an expanded fin. There 
is a separate short first dorsal fin, followed, after a short interval, by a very long 
and low second dorsal, which is composed of very weak rays, and is continued to 
the end of the tail; the anal occupying a precisely similar position on the under 
surface, and the thoracic or jugular pelvic fins consisting of several rays. Dr. 
Gunther writes that “this family, known a few years ago from a limited number 
of examples, representing a few species only, proves to be one which is distributed 
over all oceans, occurring in considerable variety and great abundance at depths of 
from one hundred and twenty to two thousand six hundred fathoms. They are, in 
fact, deep-sea gadoids, much resembling each other in the general shape of the body, 
but differing in the form of the snout, and in the structure of their scales. About 
forty species are known, many of which attain a length of 3 feet. 
The Flat-Fishes,— Family Pleuronectidh:. 
Distinguished by the unsymmetrical conformation of the head and anterior 
region of the body in the adult, in consequence of which both eyes are brought on 
