Order VI. Apodes, 



THE EELS. 



Body eel-shaped; premaxillaries atrophied or lost, the maxillaries 

 lateral; vertebras numerous, no to 250, the anterior ones not mod- 

 jfied; no ventral fins; tail isocercal; gill openings comparatively 

 small, lateral. To this order belong the larger number of our eel- 

 like fishes. 



Family VIII. Angiiillidre. 



Body elongate, eel-shaped; skin covered with rudimentary em- 

 bedded scales, usually linear in form, arranged in small groups, and 

 placed obliquely at right angles to those of neighboring groups; pec- 

 toral -and vertical fins well developed, the latter confluent around the 

 tail; gill openings lateral and vertical; teeth in cardiform bands on 

 jaws and vomer. 



39. Aiiguilla Shaw. 

 COMMON EEL; ANGUILLA. 



Anguilla Shaw, General Zoology, iv, 15, 1804. (Type, Murczna 

 anguilla Linnaeus.) 



Body elongate, compressed posteriorly; head long, conical, moder- 

 ately pointed, the rather small eye well forward and over the angle of 

 the mouth; teeth small, subequal in bands on each jaw and a long 

 patch on the vomer; lower jaw the longer; gill openings rather small, 

 slit-like, and partly below pectorals; lateral line well developed; nos- 

 trils well separated, the anterior with a slight tube; dorsal fin con- 

 fluent with anal around tail ; pectorals well developed. 



85. Anguilla chrysypa Rafinesque. COMMON EEL; ANGUILLA; 



FRESH-WATER EEL. 



Anguilla. chrysypa Rafinesque, Amer. Mon. Mag. & Crit. Rev., 

 1817, 120; Lake George; Hudson River; Lake Champlain: 

 Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus., 1896, 348. 

 Anguilla tyrannus Girard, Mex. Bd. Sur., 75, pi. XL, 1859; Mata- 



moras; mouth of the Rio Grande. 



This species is quite abundant in all streams east of the Rocky 

 Mountains from Canada to Tampico; it is also common in salt and 

 brackish water along the adjacent coasts, and in the West Indies. 

 (San Juan.) 



90 



