The Blennies : Blenniida; 



521 



Sand-lances: Ammodytidae. Near the Ophidiida are placed 

 the small family of sand-lances (Ammodytidce) . This family com- 

 prises small, slender, silvery fishes, of both Arctic and tropical 

 seas, living along shore and having the habit of burying them- 

 selves in the sand under the surf in shallow water. The jaws 

 are toothless, the body scarcely scaly and crossed by many cross- 

 folds of skin, the many-rayed dorsal fin is without spines, and 

 the ventral fins when present are jugular. The species of the 

 family are very much alike. From their great abundance they 

 have sometimes much value as food, more perhaps as bait, still 

 more as food for salmon and other fishes, from which they 

 escape by plunging into the sand. Sometimes a falling tide 



FIG. 474. Sand-lance, Ammodytes americanus De Kay. Nantucket. 



leaves a sandy beach fairly covered with living "lants "looking 

 like a moving foam of silver. Ammodytes tobianus is the sand- 

 lance or lant of northern Europe. Ammodytes americanus, 

 scarcely distinguishable, replaces it in America ; and Ammodytes 

 personatus in California, Alaska, and Japan. This is a most 

 excellent pan fish, and the Japanese, who regard little things, 

 value it highly. 



In the genus Hyperoplus there is a large tooth on the 

 vomer. In the tropical genera there is a much smaller number of 

 vertebrae and the body is covered with ordinary scales instead 



FIG. 475. Embolichthys mitsukurii (Jordan & Evermann). Formosa. 



of delicate, oblique cross-folds of skin. These tropical species 

 must probably be detached from the Ammodytidce to form a 

 distinct family, Bleekeriida . Bleekeria kallolepis is found in 

 India, Bleekeria gilli is from an unknown locality, and the 

 most primitive species of sand-lance, Embolichthys mitsukurii, 



