The Apodes or Eel-like Fishes 151 



chelys melanotcenia. The commonest species on the Atlantic 

 coast is the plainly colored Ophichthus gomesi. 



M^-T"'.' "~ _ ^ SM^V^-X^^^iZajilfjjjj^gjjiifa!*- 3H 



FIG. 107. Xyrias revulsus Jordan & Snyder. Family Ophichthyidce. Misaki, Japan. 



In the genus Sphagebranchus, very slender eels of the reefs, 

 the fins are almost wanting. 



FIG. 108. Myrichthys pantostigmius Jordan & McGregor. Clarion Island. 



Allied to the Congers is the small family of duck-billed eels 

 (Nettastomidas] inhabiting moderate depths of the sea. Net- 

 tastoma bolcense occurs in the Eocene of Monte Bolca. The pro- 

 duced snout forms a transition to the really extraordinary type 

 of thread-eels or snipe-eels (N emichthyidce) , of which numerous 

 genera and species live in the oceanic depths. In Nemichthys 



FIG. 109. Ophichthus ocellatus (Le Sueur). Pensacola. 



the long, very slender, needle-like jaws are each curved back- 

 ward so that the mouth cannot by any possibility be shut. 

 The body is excessively slender and the fish swims with swift 

 undulations, often near the surface, and when seen is usually 



