A similar species, Cololabis saira, with the snout very much shorter than in the Atlantic skipper, is the Samma of the fishermen of Japan.
The hard-head (Chriodorus atherinoides) has no beak at all and its tricuspid incisor teeth are fitted to feed on plants. In this genus, as in the flying-fishes, there are no finlets. The hard-head is an excellent food-fish abundant about the Florida Keys but not yet seen elsewhere.
Fig. 166.—Saury, Scombresox saurus (L.). Wood's Hole.
Fig. 167.—Halfbeak, Hyporhamphus unifasciatus (Ranzani). Chesapeake Bay.
Another group between the gars and the flying-fishes is that of the halfbeaks, or balaos, Hemirhamphus, etc. These are also vegetable feeders, but with much smaller teeth, and the lower jaw with a spear-like prolongation to which a bright-red membrane is usually attached. Of the halfbeaks there are several genera, all of the species swimming near the surface in schools and sometimes very swiftly. Some of them leap into the air and sail for a short distance like flying-fishes, with which group the halfbeaks are connected by easy gradations. The commonest species along our Atlantic coast is Hyporhamphus unifasciatus; a larger species, Hemirhamphus brasiliensis, abounds about the Florida Keys. Euleptorhamphus longirostris, a ribbon-shaped elongate fish, with long jaw and long pectorals, is taken in the open sea, both in the Atlantic and Pacific, being common in Hawaii. The Asiatic genus Zenarchopterus is viviparous, having the anal fin much modified in the male, forming an intromittent organ, as in the Pœciliidæ. One species occurs in the river mouths in Samoa.
The flying-fishes have both jaws short, and at least the pectoral fins much enlarged, so that the fish may sail in the air for a longer or shorter distance.
Fig. 168.—Sharp-nosed Flying-fish, Fodiator acutus (Val.). Panama.