86 



BULLETIN OP THE BUREAU OP PISHEEIES 



35. Conger (Leptocephaliis conger Linnseus) 

 Sea EEL 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 354. 

 Description. — The readiest characters by which to distinguish the conger from 

 other eels are noted above — notably the origin of the dorsal fin above or only very 

 slightly behind the tip of the pectoral when the latter is laid back, the rather long- 

 pointed snout, the large mouth cleft back at least as far as the middle of the eye, and 

 the scaleless sldn. There are also skeletal differences between this and the common 

 eel," and it has many more vertebras. The conformation of the tip of the snout 



■f^W:': ';\;_4^jj^,;jy^^ ^> v ^^ 



Fia. 36.— Conger eel (Leptocephalus conger) 



a, Adult, b, Egg. c, Larva, 9 millimeters, d. Larva, 10.2 millimeters, e, Leptocephalus stage, 142 millimeters. After 

 Schmidt. 



likewise serves to identify the conger, for its upper jaw usually projects beyond the 

 lower, whereas in the eel the reverse is true, or at least the lower equals the upper. 

 Furthermore, the eyes of the conger are oval and larger than the round eyes of the 

 common eel. We need only add further, to give an idea of the proportions of the 

 conger, that the distance from tip of snout to dorsal fin is about one-fifth of the total 

 length, the length of the snout one-fourth that of the head, length of pectorals 

 one-thii'd to one-fourth of the distance from the dorsal fin to tip of snout, and that 

 the body is of the snake-like form characteristic of eels in general. 



'' For an account of these see Smitt (Scandinavian Fishes, 1892). 



