376 NEW YORK STATE MUSE1UM 



fishes inhabiting sanely shores in cold regions, living in large 

 schools, burying themselves in the sand near the tide mark. 

 Valued as bait and useful as food for salmon and other larger 



fishes. 



189 Ammodytes americanus De Kay 



Sand Lance; Sand Eel 



Ammodyles americanus DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 317, pi. 52. fig. 167, 

 1842, Queens County, New York, and Stratford, Conn.; STOKER, Hist. 

 Fish. Mass. 216, pi. XXXIII, fig. 2, 1867; GOODE & BEAN, Bull. Essex 

 Inst. XI, 20, 1879; JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 414, 

 1883; JORDAN & EVEKMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 833, 1896, pi. 

 CXXIX, fig. 351, 1900; BEAN, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 359, 1897. 



Ammodytes vittatus DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 318, pi. 60, fig. 197, 1842, 

 New York, apparently based upon a mutilated specimen, fide JORDAN 

 & EVEKMANN. 



Argyrotaenia vittaia JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 415, 1888. 



Body long, slender, subterete, its greatest depth one tenth to 

 one twelfth of total length without caudal, its width two fifths 

 of length of head; head moderately long, with acutely pointed 

 snout, length of head one fifth of total without caudal; snout 

 nearly one third as long as the head; eye small, one sixth as long 

 as the head, and equal to width of interorbital space; lower jaw 

 somewhat projecting, the mandible nearly one half as long as 

 the head, the maxilla reaching back to front of orbit; dorsal 

 origin in advance of tip of pectoral; length of pectoral about 

 one half the length of head ; length of anal base nearly one third 

 of total without caudal; dorsal and anal rays about equal in 

 length and not much longer than the eye; intermaxillary pro- 

 tractile; voiner not armed with a bicuspid toothlike prominence, 

 D. 55 to 63; A. 27 to 31. Lateral folds 127 to 141. 



The specimens examined are from 4f to 7 inches long, from 

 Nantucket, Woods Hole and Bass Kocks, Mass. 



Colors as given by Dr Storer: of a dirty greenish brown on 

 the back, the sides and abdomen silvery, the top of the head 

 flesh-colored, the preopercles silvery, operculum cupreous and 

 silvery, pupils black, iris silvery. 



The sand lance occurs on sandy shores from Newfoundland to 

 Cape Hatteras. In certain harbors of Cape Cod and Marthas 

 Vineyard it often schools in myriads, so that the entire bottom 



