56. NEMICHTHYIDiE. 
365 
Family LV.— SACCOPHARYNGID.E. 
{The Gulpers.) 
^Muscular system very feebly developed, with the bones very thin, soft, 
and wanting in inorganic matter, connected by a lax, easily torn fibrous 
tissue. Head and gape enormous. Snout very short, pointed, flexible, 
like an appendage overlaiipiug fhe gape. Eye small. Maxillary and 
mandibulary bones very thin, slender, arched, armed with one or two 
series of long, slender, curved, widely-set teeth, their points being 
directed inwards ; palate toothless. Gill-openings wide, at some dis- 
tance from the head, at the lower part of the sides ; gills very narrow, 
free, and exposed. Trunk of moderate length. Stomach distensible in 
an extraordinary degree. Vent at the end of the trunk. Tail band- 
like, exceedingly long, tapering into a very fine filament. Pectoral 
present, small. Dorsal and anal fins rudimentary, the former smaller 
than the latter, and indicated by a groove bordered by a whitish line on 
each side, and commencing at a short distance behind the head; a short 
fine ray occasional^ visible towards the end of the trunk. Anal rays 
distinct, commencing behind the vent, and visible for some distance. 
One si)ecies known, from the Xorth Atlantic. 
{Murcenida’, group Saccopliarijngina Giintlier, Aiii, 2'2.) 
177.— SACCOPIIAKYA’X Mitcliill. 
(Mitchill, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. i, 1824, 82: tyiie Saccopliarynx flagedhim Mitcli.) 
Characters of the genus included above. (Latin, saccus, sack; 
2)harynx, jiharynx.) 
591. S. flagellum Mitcli. 
Uniform deep black. Three specimens have been found floating in the 
Yorth Atlantic, with their stomachs much distended, they having swal- 
lowed some other fish, the weight of which many times exceeded their 
own. {Giinther.) 
(Mitcliill, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. i, 1824, 82; Giinther, Tiii, 22: Opliiognatlixis 
ampuUaceus Harwood, Phil. Trans. 1827, 277.) 
Family LVI («).— NEMICHTHYID^. 
{The Snipe-Eels.) 
Body excessively slender, not strongly comiiressed, deepest near the 
middle, tapering backward to the long and very slender filament like 
tail, and forward to a very long and slender neck, which is abruptly 
