^HARP-NOSED EEL. 



381 



APODAL 

 MALACOl'TERYGII. 



MURJENID&. 



SHARP-NOSED EEL. 



Angitilla acutirostris, Sharp-nosed Eel, YARRELL, Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1831, 



pp. 133 and 159. Zool. Journ. vol. 

 iv. p. 469. 



,, omnium autorum, WILLUGHBY, p. 109, G. 5. 

 acutirostris, Sharp-nosed Eel, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 474, 



sp. 163. 

 L'Anguille, 



O * 



Common Eel, 



Mnrtena anguilla, 



ii 



Anguilla vulgar is, 



Long-bee, 

 Common Eel, 



LINN/F.US. BLOCK, pt. iii. pi. 73. 

 PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 191. 

 FLEM. Brit. An. p. 199, sp. 109. 

 CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 349. 

 BOWDICH, Brit. Fr. Wat. Fish. No. 7. 



ANGUILLA. Generic Characters. Body cylindrical, elongated, covered with 

 a thick and smooth skin ; the scales very small ; lubricated with copious mucous 

 secretion ; mouth with a row of teeth in each jaw, and a few on the anterior 

 part of the vomer ; pectoral fins close to a small branchial aperture ; no ventral 

 fins ; dorsal fin, anal fin, and caudal fin united. 



BARON CUVIER, in this family of the Mureenid^ or Eel- 

 shaped Fishes, which includes several genera forming his 

 fourth order, has brought together those fishes with soft 

 fins which have an elongated form of body : they are also 

 destitute of ventral fins, and are in consequence called Apo- 

 dal. The genus Anguilla, including our common Eels, is 

 the first of this order. 



