FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 85 



eel is that its gill openings, which open longitudinally on the lower side of the throat 

 (in the common eel and in the conger they are situated on the sides of the neck) , 

 join together at the front end to make what apparently is a single V-shaped aperture, 

 though actually they are separate within. 



Color. — Described as uniform brown, darkest below, with the vertical fins 

 darker behind, pale-edged in front, and the inside of the mouth blue black. 



Size. — The largest of 89 specimens measured by Goode and Bean (1883, p. 

 187) was nearly 22 inches (545 mm.) long, the smallest about 9 inches (221 mm.) in 

 length. Collett " 7 mentions one 26 inches (675 mm.) in length from the Azores. 



General range. — This deep-water species is of very wide distribution, having 

 been taken near Madeira, off Brazil, off Morocco, near the Cape Verdes, about the 

 Azores, and at many localities off the east coast of North America from the Grand 

 Banks of Newfoundland on the north to the latitude of South Carolina; likewise 

 about the Philippines and in Japanese waters. Most of the captures have been 

 from depths of 300 to 1,000 fathoms. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This eel has not actually been reported 

 within the geographic limits of the Gulf but is to be expected in the eastern channel 

 and possibly above 150 fathoms along the slopes of Georges Bank, for fishermen 

 have caught them in water as shallow as this off La Have Bank on the one hand, while, 

 on the other, specimens have been trawled in 168 and 129 fathoms off southern New 

 England by the Fish Hawk and Albatross. So many of them have been brought 

 in by fishermen 68 from deep water off the fishing banks to the eastward of longitude 

 65°, and so many have been trawled along the continental slope thence west- 

 ward 69 , that this eel must be one of the commonest of fishes below 150 to 200 fathoms 

 from the Grand Banks to abreast of New York. 



Habits. — Nothing is known of its habits except that it is a ground fish, that the 

 readiness with which it bites proves it predaceous, and that specimens in spawning 

 condition have been taken in summer. 69 In its development this species passes 

 through a "leptocephalus" stage even more slender than that of the conger (p. 88) . 70 



»' Resultats des Campagnes Scientifiques du Prince de Monaco, Part 10, 1896, p. 154. Monaco. 



"Many such instances are listed in the Report of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1879 (1882) , p. 787 



» Ooode and Bean, 1883, p. 187. 



™ The "leptocephalus" larvae of the long-nosed eel are described and figured by Schmidt (Rapports et Proces-Verbaux, 

 Conseil Permanent International pour l'Exploration de la Mer, Vol. V, No. 4, 1906, PI. IX, figs. 4-6; and Meddelelser fra 

 Kommissionen for Havunders^gelser, Vol. Ill, Part 1, 1913, p. 14, pi. 2, figs. 1-4. 



