66 FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



The Ventrals are very small, situated in front of pectorals ; 

 their outer rays spinous. 



The first two rays of Anal fin are spinous. 



All the fins rather lighter colored than the body of the fish. 



The fin rays are as follows: D. 76; P. 11; V. 1-1; A. 

 42 ; C. 15. 



This fish is said to be eaten by the Greenlanders, but I have 

 never heard of its being used for food in New England. 



Zoarcus. Cuv. 



Generic characters. Body elongated, covered with a mucous 

 secretion; head smooth, muzzle blunt ; ventral fins situated 

 before the pectorals ; dorsal, anal and caudal fins united ; all 

 the fins very thick ; vent anterior to the middle of the body, its 

 situation marked by a tubercle ; teeth conical, placed in a sin- 

 gle row ; branchiostegous rays 6. 



Z. anguillaris. Peck. The eel-shaped Blenny. 



Memoirs American Academy, vol. ii. ct fig. 



Traus. Lit. ct Philosoph. Soc. N. Y. vol. i. p. 375, et fig. 



Mc Murtrie's Cuv. vol. iii. p. 177. 



Although Dr. Mitchell called this species " labrosus," in his 

 paper on the " Fishes of New York," read before the " Lite- 

 rary and Philosophical Society of New York," in 1814, and 

 Cuvier has retained this specific name in his " Regne Animal," 

 still, as Peck, in 1794, wrote a good description of this fish 

 under the name of " Blennius anguillaris" and published his 

 account, accompanied by a very respectable figure, in the 2d 

 part of the 2d volume of the " Memoirs of the American Acad- 

 emy of Arts and Sciences," in 1804, I should be doing injus- 

 tice to the memory of a distinguished naturalist, were I not so 

 regardful of his honor as to acknowledge the priority of his 

 description, and to attempt the establishment of his specific 

 name. 



