152 



The Apodes, or Eel-like Fishes 



taken for a snake. The best-known species is Nemichthys scolo- 

 paceus of the Atlantic and Pacific. Nemichthys 

 avocetta, very much like it, has been twice taken 

 in Puget Sound. 



Suborder Colocephali, or Morays. In the 

 suborder Colocephali (/coAo?, deficient; Kefiahr}, 

 head) the palatopterygoid arch and the mem- 

 brane-bones generally are very rudimentary. 

 The skull is thus very narrow, the gill-struc- 

 tures are not well developed, and in the chief 

 family there are no pectoral fins. This group 

 is very closely related to the Enchelycephali, 

 from which it is probably derived. 



In the great family of morays (Murcentdcu) 

 the teeth are often very highly developed. The 

 muscles are always very strong and the spines 

 bite savagely, a live moray being often able to 

 drive men out of a boat. The skin is thick 

 and leathery, and the coloration is highly 

 specialized, the pattern of color being often 



FIG. 110. FIG. 111. 



FIG. 110. Thread-eel, Nemichthys avocetta Jordan & Gilbert. 

 FIG. 111. Jaws of Nemichthys avocetta Jordan & Gilbert. 



Vancouver Island. 



elaborate and brilliant. In Echidna zebra for example the body 

 is wine-brown, with cross-stripes of golden yellow. In Murana 

 each nostril has a barbel. Murana helena, the oldest moray 

 known, is found in Europe. In Gymnothorax, the largest genus, 

 only the anterior nostrils are thus provided. Gymnothorax 

 mordax of California is a large food-fish, as are also the brown 

 Gymnothorax funebris and the spotted Gymnothorax moringa in 

 the West Indies. These and many other species may coil them- 

 selves in crevices in the reefs, whence they strike out at their 

 prey like snakes, taking perhaps the head of a duck or the finger 

 of a man. 



