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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



which they are distinguishable at a glance by their 

 forked caudal fin, separated by an appreciable 

 space from both dorsal and anal fins; by their wide 

 gill openings; and by the presence of a large bony 

 gill cover, not to mention other anatomic charac- 

 teristics equally important if less obvious. Only 

 one species inhabits our Gulf. 33 The larger North 

 European launce (A. lanceolatus) , which grows to 

 12 inches and has 2 stout teeth on the roof of its 

 mouth, has no representative in our side of the 

 Atlantic. 



Sand launce Ammodytes americanus De Kay 

 1842 34 



Sand eel; Launce; Lant 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 833. 



Description. — The sand eel is a slender fish, its 

 body about one-tenth as deep as it is long (not 

 counting caudal fin), with long head and sharply 

 pointed nose, wide gill openings, and large mouth 

 with the lower jaw projecting far beyond the 

 upper. The jaws are toothless, and there are 

 no teeth on the roof of the mouth. There is one 

 long low dorsal fin, soft-rayed (59 to 64 rays; 

 no spines), rising somewhat in front of the tips of 

 the pectorals and running back along the whole 

 length of the body nearly to the base of the 

 caudal fin. The anal (28 to 32 rays), similar in 

 outline and equally lacking spines, originates 

 slightly behind the middle of the dorsal and runs 

 equally far back. The tail is forked. The pointed 

 pectorals are set very low down on the body, 

 and there are no ventral fins. The scales are 



M Asecond species of launce (the Arctic Ammodytes dubius Reinhardt 1838), 

 thought to be characterized by having more fin rays (65-67 dorsals, 33-36 

 anals), has been reported from Boston by Giinther (Catalogue Fishes British 

 Mus., vol. 4, 1862, p. 387), and from Woods Hole by Smith (Bull. U. S. Fish. 

 Comm., vol. 17, 1898, p. 95), but it is probable that the specimens in question 

 were merely large Ammodytes americanus. In fact it is doubtful whether 

 there is any sound distinction between the A. dubius of Greenland and the 

 European A. tobianus on the one hand, and the American A. americanus 

 on the other. 



1 Our sand eel is so closely allied to the common European launce (Ammo- 

 dytes tobianus) that we doubt whether the distinction between the two 

 (more slender form and longer head of americanus) will stand the test of 

 time. 



small, lying in cross series on the sides of the 

 body between numerous skin folds that run 

 obliquely downward and backward, and there 

 is a low ridge of skin on either side along the 

 belly. 



The readiest field marks for the sand eel among 

 Gulf of Maine fishes are its slender form and 

 sharply pointed snout, coupled with long dorsal 

 fin (separated from the caudal) and the absence of 

 ventral fins. The only fishes with which one 

 would be apt to confuse it are young eels, but in 

 these the dorsal, caudal, and ventral fins are 

 confluent, not separate, and the tail is rounded, 

 not forked. 



Color. — Authors differ in their accounts of the 

 colors of the sand eel, probably because its 

 iridescent luster fades at death and because it 

 varies in shade on different bottoms. The many 

 we have handled have been olive, brownish or 

 bluish green above, with silvery lower sides and 

 a duller white belly. Some have a longitudinal 

 stripe of steel-blue iridescence 36 along each side, 

 but others lack this. 



Size. — Mature sand eels run from about 4 inches 

 to about 6 inches in length as a rule, with a few 

 as long as 7 inches. 36 



Habits. — Sand eels are found chiefly along sandy 

 foreshores, also over the shoaler parts of the off- 

 shore fishing banks; they are seldom seen off 

 rocky parts of the coast, or over muddy bottoms 

 in deep water. They usually congregate in dense 

 schools, often of thousands of individuals, and 

 they swim as an eel does, by sidewise undulations 

 that run along the body from front to rear, which 

 makes them easy to recognize in the water. 



The most interesting habit of the sand eel is 

 the custom it has of digging itself several (4 to 6) 

 inches deep in the sand, into which it burrows 



" In the European sand launce (Ammodytes tobianus), the sides are de- 

 scribed as with lines of tiny brown dots and the tip of the snout as black- 

 ish, especially in the young fish. 



« According to Bean (Bull. New York State Mus. 60, Zool. 9, 1903, p. 376) 

 the majority are from 4% to 7 inches; and the largest we measured was about 

 7 inches long. Storer (Fishes of Mass., 1867, p. 217) credits them with a 

 maximum length of 12 inches; seemingly this was an error. 



Figure 254. — Sand launce (Ammodytes americanus), Nantucket. From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



