Hair-tail

Hair-tail (Trichurus), a genus of acanthopterous fishes be- longing to the tropical marine fauna, and found generally near land. The body is long, scaleless, greatly compressed, ribbon-shaped, and ends in a long, whip-like tail. The cleft of the mouth is deep, and there are strong teeth on the jaws and the palate. The dorsal fin extends along the whole of the back and is spiny throughout; the ventral fins, when present, are in the form of a pair of scales; the anal spines are small, and are sometimes concealed beneath the skin. Six species are known. Some of them attain a length of four feet. One species, the Silvery Hair-tail or Ribbon-fish (T. lepturus), is found in the Atlantic Ocean, on the east coast of North America, from Cape Cod to Florida and the West Indies. Wanderers are caught off the British and Irish and more rarely the French coasts. The other species are most common in the seas of India, the Malay Archipelago, and China. As food they are held in various estimation in different places.