Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/207

Rh the following bones:—the ethmoid (or anterior wall of the skull ) the vomer, (or central bone of the roof of the mouth) the pre-operculum and inter-operculum, (the anterior parts, above and below, of the gill-cover) the pterygoids and tympanals, (bones which help to form the cheeks). At the extremity of the osseous tube thus formed is placed the mouth, composed of the bones of the palate and the usual jaw-bones. In addition to this strongly marked character, it may be observed that the ribs are very short, or altogether wanting, and that the intestinal canal is short, comparatively free from irregularities and from windings.

This small Family, scarcely mustering twenty species, contains two peculiarities of form, the types of two sub-families.

1. Fistulariana. In these the body is long and slender, with the head about one-third of the whole length. They have six or seven gill-rays; with some bony appendages behind the head, to strengthen the fore parts of the body. There is, but one dorsal, situated far back, immediately above the anal; the stomach is a fleshy tube merging into a straight canal, with two cæca at the commencement. These are the little fishes frequently brought home as curiosities from the tropical parts of the Atlantic and Pacific, and called Tobacco-pipe fishes. There are eight species enumerated, but they are of no use to man.

2. Centriscina. The mouth-tube is slender and cylindrical, and the body is oval or oblong, not