^i 8 The Blennies: Blenniidae 



In the wolf -eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus) of the coast of Cali- 

 fornia, the head is formed as in Anarhichas but the body is 

 band-shaped, being drawn out into a very long and tapering 

 tail. This species, which is often supposed to be a " sea-serpent," 

 sometimes reaches a length of eight feet. It is used for food. 

 It feeds on sea-urchins and sand-dollars (Echinarachinius) 

 which it readily crushes with its tremendous teeth. 



The skull of a fossil genus, Laparus (alticeps), with a resem- 

 blance to Anarhichas, is recorded from the Eocene of England. 



The Eel-pouts: Zoarcidae. The remaining blenny-like forms 

 lack fin spines, agreeing in this respect with the codfishes and 

 their allies. In all of the latter, however, the hypercoracoid 

 is imperforate, the pseudobranchiae are obsolete, and the tail 

 isocercal. The forms allied to Zoarces and Ophidian, and which 

 we may regard as degraded blennies, have homocercal (rarely 

 leptocercal) tails, generally but not always well-developed pseu- 

 dobranchiae and the usual foramen in the hypercoracoid. 



The Zoarcidcs, or eel-pouts, have the body elongate, naked, 

 or covered with small scales, the dorsal and anal of many soft 

 rays and the gill-openings confined to the side. Most of the 

 species live in rather deep water in the Arctic and Antarctic 

 regions. Zoarces viviparus, the "mother of eels," is a common 

 fish of the coasts of northern Europe. In the genus Zoarces, 



FIG. 46S. Eel-pout, Zoarces anguillaris Peck. Eastport, Me. 



the last rays of the dorsal are short and stiff, like spines. The 

 species are viviparous; the young being eel-like in form, the 

 name "mother of eels " has naturally arisen in popular language. 

 The American eel-pout, sometimes called mutton-fish, Zoarces 

 anguillaris, is rather common north of Cape Cod, and a similar 

 species, Zoarces elongatus, is found in northern Japan. 

 Lycodopsis pacifica, without spines in the dorsal, replaces 

 Zoarces in California. The species of Lycodes, without spines 



