414 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY — IV. 
Family LXIX.— AMMODYTID.^:. 
The Sajid Launces. 
Body elongate, compressed, covered with small cycloid scales. Head 
long. IMoutli rather large, nearly horizontal, the lower jaw consider- 
ably i)rojecting, the symphysis produced. Ko teeth in jaws. Gill- 
openings very wide; gill-membranes not united, free from the isthmus. 
Branchiostegals 0 to 8. Pseudobranchim large, lamellate. Gill-rakers 
long and slender ; gills 4, a slit behind the fourth. Opercles well de- 
veloped, without spines or seiratures. Eye moderate. Premaxillaries 
very protractile. Maxillaries long and slender. Lateral line running 
along side of back. Spinous dorsal absent (or represented by a few 
weak spines); soft dorsal very long and low, fragile, extending from 
behind the head to near the base of caudal. Caudal fin small, forked. 
Anal similar to dorsal, but smaller. Yent somewhat behind middle of 
body. Ko ventral fins. Pectoral fins inserted low. No air-bladder. 
Pyloric cceca usually 1. Genera 4, species 8. Small fishes swimming in 
large schools and often burying themselves in the sand. Found along 
the coasts of northern regions. 
(Ophidiidce group Ammodptlna Giinther, iv, 384-388.) 
* Body with many transverse, oblique folds; a longitudinal fold of skin along sides 
of belly; vomer unarmed. 
a. Dorsal fin without spines Ammooytes, 204. 
aa. Dorsal fin imeceded by 7 small free spines ARGYKOXiENiA, 205. 
201.-AI?iyiODYTJES Linnaeus. 
Sand Launces. 
(Artedi ; Linn. Syst. Nat. : type Ammodptes iobianus L.) 
Body elongate, lanceolate, the skin with many transverse folds run- 
ning obliquely downward and backward, the small cycloid scales 
mostly placed in cross-series between them. Lateral line concurrent 
with the back. A fold of the skin along each side of the belly. Yomer 
not armed with a bicuspid tooth. Color silvery. Yertebrm G3. (a/ 2 ,ao<r, 
sand; duw^ to dive.) 
6.52. A. aniericaBiMS DeKay. — SandLaunce; Sand Eel; Lant. 
Olivaceous above, silvery below ; sides witli a steel-blue stripe. Pec- 
♦toral fins much longer than snout, reaching front of dorsal. Lateral 
folds 125-130. Depth equal to length of mandible, which is 2^ in head. 
