NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 203 



barbels, and that Pennant's fish was an eel.* He was unable to determine a 

 fish noticed by Montague under the same name. While therefore the Ophidium 

 imberbe was eliminated from the Catalogues of Fishes of Continental Europe 

 as a distinct species, it still held a position among those of England. To the 

 consideration of this English fish we now proceed. 



In 1811, in the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, Montaguef described 

 and figured the fish identified by him with the Ophidium imberbe It was 

 " taken on the south coast of Devon," and in " length was about three inches ;" 

 the body " ensiform ;" "the dorsal fin commences immediately above the 

 base of the pectoral, and is at first not so broad, and usually not so erect as 

 the other part," and the caudal is cuneiform and obtusely pointed. "The 

 color is purplish-brown, disposed in minute speckles; and along the base of 

 the anal fin are about ten small bluish-white spots regularly placed, but 

 scarcely discernible without a lens, possibly peculiar to younger fishes." 

 The rays were respectively pectoral 11; dorsal about 74 ; anal 44 ; caudal 

 18 or 20. Such was the first detailed account of Ophidium imberbe, based on 

 a British fish, and such the authority on which the subsequent British faun- 

 ists have preserved the species in their catalogues. By Turtou,J Fleming,^ 

 Jenyns,|| Yarrell, ^[ Gray,** &c, it has been retained in the genus Ophidium 

 (QFierasfer), while more recently, Kaup,ff Richardson^ and Giinther$$ have 

 transferred it to the genus Gymnclis ; the first originally under the name of 

 Cepolop his. || j] It remains to examine into the grounds for such approxima- 

 tions. 



It is not probable that a fish whose dorsal arrested the attention of Mon- 

 tague on account of its being so " erect," could have been a Malacopterygian, 

 and this character as well as the distinctness of all the rays, the development 

 of the caudal, whose rays are longer than those of the dorsal and anal, the 

 relations of the various parts, and even the gill-membranes inflated beneath, 

 render it evident that the fish in question could have been in no wise related 

 to either Ophidium, Fierasferl or Gymnelisfi all of which are Malacopterygian^, 

 with caudal rays shortest and not developed as a distinct fin. Its affinities are 

 then to be sought for in another direction. The general form, the " erect" 

 dorsal fin and the number of rays, agree with Mursenoides gunnellus. The color 

 is in that species sometimes simply "purplish-brown," the dorsal spots be- 

 coming obsolete, and, in a single specimen from England in the Smithsonian 

 collection, several anal spots are barely discernible. 3 The failure to ob- 

 serve the ventrals was shared with Schonevelde, Schelhammer, Linnaeus, &c, 

 and we are more prepared for their non-observance by Montague when we 



* Cuvier, Mem. du Museum, i. 1315, 312324. 



f Montague, Mem. Wern. Soc. i. 1811, p. 95, pi. 4. fig. 2. 



% Turton, Brit. Faun., 1807, p.88. I Fleming, Brit. An., 1828. p. 201. 



|| Jen} ns, Man., 1835. p. 281. \ Yarrell, Br. Fishes, ii. 1841, p. 412. 



** Gray and White, List Br. An. B. M., Fishes, 1851, p. 51. 



ft Kaup, Cat. A p. Fishes. 1856, p. 156. 



XX Yarrell, Br. Fishes, Kichardson's ed., i. p. 79 (fide Gunther.) 



gg Gunther, Cat Fishes, iv. 1862, p. 325. |||| Kaup,Arch. fiir Nat, 1856, i. p. 97. 



1 Fierasfer Cuv., is the type of a peculiar family related to the Opidioids, but with the anuf 

 thoracic or jugular, the body much attenuated backwards, and the anal fin longer and higher 

 than the dorsal : it embraces four genera, Ficras/tr Cuv., or Cdrapus Raf. (not Cuv.), Enchcliophis 

 J. Muell., Ecliiodun Thompson, the latter of which is the only British type, and Uelminlhcdes 

 Gill, (type OxybeUs lumbricoides Blkr.,) distinguished by its very slender form. 



2 Gymnelis Keinh., is the representative of a peculiar family (Lycodoidx), allied to the Brotu- 

 loids, but with the branchial apertures more or less restricted, the ventrals rudimentary or obso- 

 lete, the skull oblique behind, the supraoccipital bone being deflected downwards, wedged between 

 the exoceipitals, and with its point and low crest continued almost orquite to the foramen magnum ; 

 the cranial cavity is open in front, no osseous septum being developed. This family is only repre- 

 sented by the genus Enchelyopus or Zoarces in the European seas, which, as J. Mfiller (Arch, fur 

 Nat., 1843, l. 294) has shown, is truly Malacopterygian. 



3 These light spots are accidental, none being developed in other specimens from England, Den- 

 mark and the German Ocean. 



1864.] 



