3-34 OPHIDIUM EEL. 



of which we have preferred to copy; since the prospect of 

 obtaining a drawing from a recent example is exceedingly 

 uncertain. But it is said to be of common occurrence in and 

 near the Mediterranean, in no great depth of water; and we 

 may add, that beyond this, little is known of its appropriate 

 habits. 



Montagu's example only measured three inches in length, 

 but that which we have represented was five inches and three 

 fourths; the shape generally like that of an Eel, but with the 

 head less depressed. Eye large; jaws about equal; lateral line 

 straight. Petoral fin rather large; in Montagu's figure the 

 dorsal fin begins above the pectoral, but Pennant and Bloch 

 agree in placing it back at about one third of the length of 

 the fish from the snout. A yellow colour is so common to this 

 fish, that it has been represented as among its specific marks; 

 but as Bloch has not shewn it we have omitted it in our 

 figure. This last-mentioned writer has also shewn a dark stripe 

 as passing from the snout to the eye and superior portion of 

 the gill-covers. Mr. Yarrell appears to have supposed that the 

 likeness of this fish given by Schneider was copied from 

 Pennant; but there are sufficient differences between them to 

 shew that such was not the case; and that of the German 

 naturalist may have been procured from an example obtained 

 in the Baltic, where he says this fish is found; although it is 

 not mentioned by Nilsson in his "History of the Fishes of 

 Scandinavia.'* 



