SAND-EEL. 425 



till the recent publication of Mr. Jenyns' valuable Manual of 

 British Vertebrate Animals, that any English Zoologist had 

 admitted two species among British Fishes. Shaw, in his 

 General Zoology, vol. iv. p. 81, plate 9, has figured both 

 species, but with only one name, and but one description.* 



Ray, in his short notice from Jago's Catalogue, calls his 

 Ammodytes Anglorum verus the true Sand-Eel ; and his 

 figure leaves no doubt that his fish is the same as the To- 

 bianus of Linnceus, Bloch, and others. In the late Colonel 

 Montagu's copy of Berkenhout's Synopsis of the Natural 

 History of Great Britain, there is a note in Montagu's 

 writing, which states, " That at Teignmouth a distinction 

 is made between the Sand-Eel and Sand-Launce, by the size 

 and superior length of the head and gills in the one ; it is 

 also said to be much more rare." The rarity and greater 

 length of the head are both on the side of the Tobianus, 

 the Sand-Eel, which, as far as my own observation goes, is 

 much more scarce than the smaller-sized species with the 

 shorter head ; I am therefore desirous of preserving the dis- 

 tinctive appellation of Sand-Eel to the longer fish, A. To- 

 bianus, and continuing that of Sand-Launce to the smaller 

 species, bearing among naturalists the specific name of 

 Lancea. 



M. Lesauvage gave the name of lanceolatus to the species 

 which had been previously called Tobianus, his trivial name 

 will therefore only be used as a synonym. 



Willughby's figure, G. 8, f. I, appears to have been co- 

 pied from Salvianus. and represents an Ammodytes with two 

 small dorsal fins ; I have not, therefore, referred it to cither 

 of our fishes. 



The Sand-Eel is immediately to be distinguished from 

 the Sand-Launce by its greater size, specimens now before me 

 measuring twelve inches in length ; Ray's fish was fifteen 



" Doth specimens arc also figured by Klein. 



