ANGLESEY MORRIS. M 1 



wliich it traverses without convolution to the vent. This 

 canal may be distinctly seen in the perfect fish when placed 

 flat on a slip of glass, and looked at against a good light, 

 particularly the descending portion from the head to the 

 level of the abdominal line. 



The head is small, short, and rather blunt : the eyes large ; 

 hides silvery, the pupil dark : the lower jaw slender ; teeth 

 in both jaws, numerous and minute ; gill-openings and pec- 

 toral fins very small ; the body behind the head becomes 

 deeper, very much compressed, as thin as tape, and when 

 rendered opaque by the effect of a mixture of spirit of wine 

 and water, which is the best mode of preserving them, this 

 fish very much resembles a piece of a tape worm. 



The dorsal fin commences rather before the middle of the 

 whole length of the fish ; the anal fin rather behind it ; and 

 both extend to the tail, where they are united, and end in a 

 point. These fin-like appendages have the appearance of an 

 extension of the skin, and are so delicate that it is not always 

 easy to decide where they do begin, or may be called fin ; 

 the dorsal and abdominal margins, as well as the lateral line, 

 exhibit a series of small black specks : the obliquely striated 

 appearance of the sides has been already referred to. The 

 general colour is most like that of opal. 



I have had opportunities of examining specimens from the 

 Mediterranean which were identical with those from Cornwall, 

 as well as those described and figured in the English works 

 already referred to. M. Risso includes but one species in 

 his fishes of Southern Europe and the Environs of Nice, 

 which he has named Leptocephalus Spallanzani, torn. iii. p. 

 205 ; but the description so exactly accords with English 

 specimens, that I have no doubt it is the fish I have seen, 

 and the same as that on our own shores. 



