670 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



short; no cirri; eyes large, placed high; mouth moderate, with 

 a single row of rather small conic teeth on each jaw, palatine 

 teeth present or absent; gill openings prolonged forward below, 

 very narrowly united anteriorly to the isthmus, not forming a 

 free fold across it; dorsal composed of numerous sharp, flex- 

 ible, rather high spines; caudal fin long; anal many-rayed; 

 pectorals large, more than one half length of head, the middle 

 rays longest; ventrals well developed, jugular, I, 3 or I, 4; intes- 

 tinal canal long; pyloric caeca present; no air bladder. Chiefly 

 herbivorous. Northern seas. 



Subgenus L,EPTOBL,EJVNIUS Gill 

 329 Lumpenus lampetraeformis (Walbaum) 

 Eel Blenny; Snakefish 



Blennius lampetraeformis WALBAUM, Artedi Gen. Pise. Ill, 184, 1792; 



Iceland. 

 Blennius serpentinus STORER, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. Ill, 30, 1848; 



Massachusetts Bay; Hist. Fish. Mass. 91, pi. XVII, fig. 1, 1S67. 

 Leptoblennius serpentinus GOODE & BEAN, 'Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 10, 1879; 



Massachusetts Bay; JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 



778, 1883. 



Stichaeus islandicus GUNTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. HI, 281, 1861. 

 Lumpenus lampetraeformis GOLLETT, Norske Nord-Havs Exp. 71, 1880; 



JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 778, 1883; JORDAN & 



EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. Ill, 2438, pi. CCCXLIV, fig. 



840, 1898. 



The depth of the body is one fifteenth of the length, which is 

 nine times the length of the head. Head not large, its sides 

 sparsely covered with small scales; eye as long as snout; maxil- 

 lary reaching front of pupil; gill openings extending forward 

 below for a distance less than length of snout; pectorals 

 long, seven eighths length of head; ventrals moderate, two and 

 two thirds in head. D. LXXV; A. 50; V. I, 3. 



Olive above with lighter cloudings; pale below; dorsal fin 

 brownish, with broad, oblique, white bands; pectorals pale. 



The snakefish inhabits the North Atlantic and Arctic on both 

 shores, ranging south to Sweden and Norway, east to Spitz- 

 bergen; on our coast extending south to Cape Cod and perhaps 

 Long Island. It is a common resident of the deep waters of 

 Massachusetts bay, where it is a favorite food of the cod and 



