842 PROCEEDIXaS OF THE NATIONAL MVSEVM. voi.xxin. 



2. ANGUILLA Shaw. 

 EELS. 



AnguUla Shaw, General Zoology, IV, 1804, p. 15 {anguilla). 



Murppna Bleeker, Poey, etc. (taking at? type MnririKi aiH/nilla, the first .species 

 mentioneil })y Artedi uikUt Mi(r;fii<t). 



Body elongate, eonipre.ssed behind, covered with eni))edded scales 

 which are linear in form and placed ohlicjuely, some of them at right 

 angles to others. Lateral line well developed. Head long, conical, 

 moderately pointed, the rather small eye well forward and over the 

 angle of the mouth. Teeth small. sul)e(iiial, in bands on each jaw and 

 a long patch on the vomer. Tongue five at tip. Lips rather fidl, 

 with a free margin l)ehind, attached by a fi-enum in front. Lower 

 jaw projecting. Gill openings rather small, slit-like, about as 

 wide as base of pectorals and partly below them. Nostrils superior, 

 well separated, the anterior with a slight tu])e. Vent close in front 

 of anal. Dorsal inserted at some distance from the head, confluent 

 with the anal aroiuid the tail. Pectorals well developed. Species 

 found ill most warm seas (the eastern Pacific excepted), ascending 

 streams, but mostly spawning in the sea. The eels often move for a 

 consideral)le distance on land in daiup grass. Waterfalls, dams, and 

 other obstructi(^ns are often passed in this way. It is thought that 

 the eel spawns only in the sea, the female dying after having once 

 produced ova. The females are larger than the males, paler in color, 

 with smaller eyes and higher hns. Eels are among the most voracious 

 of fishes. "'On their hunting excursions they overturn alike huge 

 and small stones, beneath which they find species of shrimp and cray- 

 fish, of which they are excessively fond. Their noses are poked into 

 ever}' imaginable hole in their search for food, to the terror of innu- 

 merable small fishes." The single Japanese species dift'ers very 

 slighth', if at all, from the American eel Aiu/aHhi cJiri/xi/jxi. {A/u/u- 

 ill((, the eel.) 



2. ANGUILLA JAPONICA Schlegel. 



UNA(iI (EEL); O-UXACtI (GREAT EEL); GOMA-UNA(tI (CARAWAY- SEED 



OR SPECKLED EEL). 



AnguUla japonica Schlegel, Fauna Japoniea, LS47, p. 258, pi. c.xiii, fig. 2, Naga- 

 saki. — Bleekeu, V'erh. Bot. Gen., XXV, Japan, p. 51. — Kner, Novara Fische, 

 p. 370.— JoRD.w and Snyder, Proc. U. S. Xat. Mu-s., 1900, p. 348, Yokohama. 



Muneria pekhiennis B.\sile\vsky, Nouv. M^ni. Soc. Nat. Mose., X, 1855, p, 246, 

 pi. Ill, fig. 2, Pekin. 



AtiguUld ndgaris, he)igalmt<is, and iiKnirltidiia Isiiikawa, Prel. (\it. Fish, p. 7, 1897, 

 Ilitaka, Tokyo, Hashigo, Zensiio, Sagaini, Awa, Kadzusa. 



Head about 2i in trunk. ui)per jaw '4h in head, distance from front 

 of dorsal to vent a little less than head; pectoral, 8 in head; distance 



