Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/155

Rh these two characters, thinness and length, are found in so extraordinary a degree, as to suggest the idea of a piece of tape, or ribbon; each of which fabrics has given a name to its members. So gradual indeed, is the transition from the Scombridæ to the Cepoladæ, that certain of the connecting forms have been placed by some naturalists in the one, and by others in the other. Thus Pteraclis, that singular American fish before referred to (see the engraving on page 55), has the compressed silver-plated body of the Ribbon-fishes, with the fins (in excess) of the Coryphenes; and is, by Cuvier, assigned to the latter; by Swainson to the former; while of the Silvery Hair-tails (Trichiurus), and the Scabbard-fishes (Lepidopus) the reverse is true; the French zoologist marshalling them in the ranks of the Ribbon-fishes, the English giving them companionship with the Coryphenes.

The technical characters, as indicated by Cuvier, which belong to this Family, are somewhat vague; being simply the following: "these fishes are long, flattened sidewise, and have very minute scales." Each of these characters, however, we have seen to belong to some of the Scombridæ, only in a rather less extreme degree. Thirty-four species are at present included in the Family; the majority of which have been made known at a comparatively recent period. They are for the most part pelagic in their habits; that is, they rove in the open sea, far from the land. The warmer parts of all the oceans produce them, and not a few are natives of the Mediterranean. Some extend their range into the colder seas of the north, and two or three species are