Identifier: fishes00jord (find matches)
Title: Fishes
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Jordan, David Starr, 1851-1931
Subjects: Fishes
Publisher: New York, H. Holt and Company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian

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e water the movements 44 Instincts, Habits, and Adaptations of the tail are continued until the whole body is out of the water.When the tail is in motion the pectorals seem in a state of rapidvibration. This is not produced by muscular action on thefins themselves. It is the body of the fish which vibrates, thepectorals projecting farthest having the greatest amplitude ofmovement. While the tail is in the water the ventral fins arefolded. When the action of the tail ceases the pectorals andventrals are spread out wide and held at rest. They are notused as true wings, but are held out firmly, acting as parachutes,enabling the body to skim through the air. When the fishbegins to fall the tail touches the water. As soon as it is in thewater it begins its motion, and the body with the pectoralsagain begins to vibrate. The fish may, by skimming the water,regain motion once or twice, but it finally falls into the waterwith a splash. While in the air it suggests a large dragon-fly. /^^?>v
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 30.—Sand-darter, .Immocri/pta c/oro (Jordan and Meek). Dos Moines River. The motion is very swift, at first in a straight line, but is laterdeflected in a curve, the direction bearing little or no relationto that of the wind. When a vessel passes through a schoolof these fishes, they spring up before it, moving in all directions,as grasshoppers in a meadow. Quiescent Fishes.—Some fishes, as the lancelet, lie buried inthe sand all tlicir lives. Others, as the sand-darter (Ammocryptapellncida) and the liinalea (Julis gaimard), bury themselves inthe sand at intervals or to escape from their enemies. Some livein the cavities of tunicates or sponges or holothurians or coralsor oysters, often passing their whole lives inside the cavity ofone animal. Many others hide themselves in the interstices ofkelp or seaweeds. Some eels coil themselves in tlie crevices ofrocks or coral masses, striking at their prey like snakes. Somesea-horses cling by their tails to gulfweed or sea-wrack. Man

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