=Cornet-fishes: Fistulariidæ.=—Closely related to the sticklebacks so far as structure is concerned is a family of very different habit, the cornet-fishes, or cornetas (_Fistulariidæ_). In these fishes the body is very long and slender, like that of a garfish. The snout is produced into a very long tube, which bears the short jaws at the end. The teeth are very small. There are no scales, but bony plates are sunk in the skin. The ventrals are abdominal, each with a spine and four rays. The four anterior vertebræ are very much elongate. There are no spines in the dorsal and the back-bone extends through the forked caudal, ending in a long filament. The cornet-fishes are dull red or dull green in color. They reach a length of two or three feet, and the four or five known species are widely distributed through the warm seas, where they swim in shallow water near the surface. _Fistularia tabaccaria_, the tobacco-pipe fish, is common in the West Indies, _Fistularia petimba_, _F. serrata_, and others in the Pacific. A fossil cornet-fish of very small size, _Fistularia longirostris_, is known from the Eocene of Monte Bolca, near Verona. _Fistularia kœnigi_ is recorded from the Oligocene of Glarus. =The Trumpet-fishes: Aulostomidæ.=—The _Aulostomidæ_, or trumpet-fishes are in structure entirely similar to the _Fistulariidæ_, but the body is band-shaped, compressed, and scaly, the long snout bearing the feeble jaws at the end. There are numerous dorsal spines and no filament on the tail. _Aulostomus chinensis_ (_maculatus_) is common in the West Indies, _Aulostomus valentini_ abounds in Polynesia and Asia, where it is a food-fish of moderate importance. A species of _Aulostomus_ (_bolcensis_) is found in the Italian Eocene. Allied to it is the extinct family _Urosphenidæ_, scaleless, but otherwise similar. _Urosphen dubia_ occurs in the Eocene at Monte Bolca. _Urosphen_ is perhaps the most primitive genus of the whole suborder of _Hemibranchii_. [Illustration: FIG. 184.—Trumpet-fish, _Aulostomus chinensis_ (L.) Virginia. ] =The Snipefishes: Macrorhamphosidæ.=—Very remarkable fishes are the snipefishes, or _Macrorhamphosidæ_. In these forms the snout is still tubular, with the short jaws at the end. The body is short and deep, partly covered with bony plates. The dorsal has a very long serrated spine, besides several shorter ones, and the ventral fins have one spine and five rays. [Illustration: FIG. 185.—Japanese Snipefish, _Macrorhamphosus sagifue_ Jordan & Starks. Misaki, Japan. ] The snipefish, or woodcock-fish, _Macrorhamphosus scolopax_, is rather common on the coasts of Europe, and a very similar species (_M. sagifue_) occurs in Japan. The _Rhamphosidæ_, represented by _Rhamphosus_, an extinct genus with the ventrals further forward, are found in the Eocene rocks of Monte Bolca. _Rhamphosus vastrum_ has minute scales, short dorsal, and the snout greatly attenuate.