333 



FIERASFER. 



This genus is separated by Cuvier from that of Ophidium, with 

 which it had been mingled with the character of having the dorsal 

 and anal fins united to form the tail, as in the Eels; the body 

 lengthened and the vent far behind, as in these fish, but with the 

 distinction from the genera AnguiUa and Murcena, in having the openings 

 of the gills widely cleft. It is also without barbs above or below the 

 jaws. Apodal fishes. 



OPHIDIUM EEL. 



BEARDLESS OPHIDIUM. 



Beardless Ophidiuyn, Willoughby; p. 113, Table G. 7, f. 1. 



Ophidian imberbe, Linnaeus; but he classes it with 



Jugular fishes. 

 Ophidium imberbe, Bloch, Schneider, PL 90, but at page 



486 he terms it 0. Chinense. 

 Ophidie imberbe, Lacepede. Pennant; vol. iv, pi. 93. 



Ophidium imberbe, Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 201, 



" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 481. 



RoNDELETius, who appears to have been the first who has 

 noticed this fish, remarks that it is as much like a Conger as 

 one egg is to another. 



This little fish is so far one of the rarest in Britain, that it 

 is only mentioned as having been found twice on our shores; 

 the earliest of which was near Weymouth, and of which 

 Pennant has given a characteristic likeness. The other was 

 found by Montagu on the south coast of Devonshire; but some 

 degree of doubt falls on it, since, when it died, Avhich it did 

 presently after being taken, it assumed a spasmodically distorted 

 shape, very different from what is represented in Pennant's 

 figure and that by Bloch as published by Schneider; the latter 



