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FISTULARIA

Volume 4 · 124 words · 1778 Edition

or Tobacco-pipe Fish; a genus of fishes, belonging to the order of abdominales. Of this genus Linnaeus reckons two species; but we have a description only of one, viz. the tabacaria. It is described by Mr Catesby, from the only one he ever pi. cviii. saw. It was almost a foot in length; the fore-part from fig. 2. the nose to half-way the body of nearly equal bigness; from whence it grew tapering to the tail, which was forked, and from which grew a slender taper whip, four inches long, of the consistence of whalebone; the mouth narrow, from which to the eyes was almost three inches. The whole fish was of a brown colour. They are sometimes taken on the coals of Jamaica.