348 Bulletin 4y, United States National Museum. 



574. ANGUILLA CHRYSYPA,* Rafiuesque. 

 (American Eel ; Fresh Water Eet,.) 



Distance from front of dorsal to vent IJ to 2 in head ; pectoral 2'% to 

 3^ in head; head 2 to 2i in trunk. Form rather robust. Brown, nearly- 

 plain, often tinged with yellowish ; paler below, the color extremely 

 variable. Lcnjjth 1 or 5 feet. Atlantic coast of the United States; very 

 abundant from Maine to Mexico ; ascending all rivers south of Canada 

 and east of the Rocky Mountains and resident throughout the Missis- 

 sippi Valley. Common in the West Indies. Not found in the Pacific. A 

 food-fish of importance, (xpvab^, gold: iinb, below.) 



Anguilla chnjaupa, Rafinesque, Amer. Month. Mag. ACrit. Rev., 1817, 120, Lake George ; Hud- 

 son River; Lake Champlain. 

 AngniUa lilephnra, Rafine.sque, Amer. Mouth. Mag. & Crit. Rev., 1817, 120, Long Island. 

 AngtdUa Jaticaiuhi, Rafinesque, Amer. Month. Mag. & Crit. Rev., 1817, 445, Oliio River. 

 Anguilla aterrima, Rafinesque, Ich. Ohiensis, 78, 1820, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. 

 AngniUa xanthomelas, Rafinesque, Ich. Ohiensis, 78, 1820, Ohio River. 

 Anguilla lutea, Rafinesque, Ich. Ohiensis, 78, 1820, Ohio River. 

 Mnncnaroslrata, Le Sueur, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1821, 81, Cayuga Lake. 

 Mnriena bostoniensis, Le Sueur, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1821, 81, Boston. 

 Mnrfrna serpentina, Le Sueur, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1821, 82, Newport, Rhode Island. 

 Murana macrncepltala, Le Sueur, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1821, 82, Saratoga, New York. 

 Miiaina argentea, Le Sueur, Journ, Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1821, 82, Boston Bay. 

 AngniUa tenmrostris, DeKay, Fishes N. Y., 310, 1842, New York. 



Anguilla novuorleanensis, Kaup, Apodes, 43, fig. 33, 18.50, New Orleans, Louisiana. 

 Anguilla punctaUisima, Kaup, Apodes, 44,1856, Niagara River. 

 Anguilla cuhana, Kaup, Apodes, 44, 185(5, Cuba. 



Anguilla novalerrx, Kaup, Apodes, 45, fig. 35, 18.5G, Newfoundland. 

 AngniUa texana, Kaup, Apodes, 45, fig. 36, 1856, Texas. 

 Anguilla wabasheiiKis, Kaup, Apodes, 46, 1856, -Wabash River. 

 Anguilla tyrannus, Girard, U. S. and Mex. Bound. Surv., 75, 1859, Rio Grande. 

 Anguilla rostrata, De Kay, Fishes N. Y., 312, 1842. 

 Munena cubana, PoEV, Synopsis, 421, 1868. 



Anguilla anguilla rosliala, Meek, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., in, 1883, 430. 

 Angitilla chrysypa, Jordan & Davis, Review of Apodal Fishes, 668, 1892. 



Family XLIV. SIMENCHELYID.E. 



(The Snub-nosed Eels.) 



This family contains a single species, a large deep-sea eel, parasitic in 

 larger fishes, having the general characters of Anf/uiUa, but with the 

 form of the head strikingly different. The following diagnosis is given 

 by Dr. Gill: 



Apodal fishes with a blunt snout, transverse, anterior mouth, massive 

 jaws with an acrodont dentition, and inferior longitudinal branchial slits 

 moderately far apart from each other. 



*Among the multitudes of American eels examined by us we have been unable to detect 

 specific differences. As all these specimens differ in a sliglit degree from any we have seen 

 from Europe, we may provisionally recognize the American form under its oldest name, Anguilla 

 chryxypa, as a distinct species. As these differences are slight, it is not unlikely that interme- 

 diate forms may occur, in wiiich case the American form may stand as var. chri/ni/pa. Dr. Bean 

 records in the "Nineteenth Rejiort of the Commission of Fisheries of New Y^ork," page 280, 

 five individuals from Great South Bay, Long Island, which he thinks may represent Ayignilla 

 argentea (Le Sueur). These specimens are described as having "large eyes, short snout, and 

 long pectoral fins as compared with the common form, silvery gray above with a clear satiny 

 wliite abdomen sejjarated from the color above by the lateral line." These specimens are very 

 interesting because they were found "to be males with the generative glands so well developed 

 as to leave no doubt concerning the sex." 



