3G4 CONTEIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY lY. 
Family LIV.— SYXAPII0BRA^X1IID.E. 
{The Sijnaphohranchoid Eels.) 
Body eel-sliaped, covered witli linear, imbedded scales placed at right 
angles, as in Anguilla. Lateral line present. Head long and pointed, 
the snout produced. Mouth very long, the eye being over the middle of 
its cleft. Jaws about equal ; teeth small, sharp, in a broad band in each 
jaw, becoming a single series anteriorly; those of inner series in upper 
jaw and of outer series in mandible somewhat enlarged; vomerine teeth 
in a narrow baud anteriorly. Gdl-opeuings inferior, horizontal, close 
together, convergent forward, somewhat conduent at the surface, but 
separated by a considerable isthmus within. Tongue long, free only at 
the sides. Xostrils large, the anterior with a short tube, the posterior 
before the lower part of the eye. Pectoral well developed ; dorsal low, 
beginning behind vent ; anal longer than dorsal, rather high, its rays 
slender, branched, not imbedded in the skin ; vertical fins confluent 
around the tail. Tent near the anterior fourth of body. ^luscular and 
osseous systems well developed. Stomach very distensible. Deep-sea 
fishes; a single genus with i species known. 
{Murwnidce, group Synaphobranchina Giintlier, viii, 2'2-23.) 
176.— SYXAPIIOBRAXCHIS Johnson. 
(Johnson, Proc. ZoGl. Soc. London, 1562, 169: type Synaphobranchus Tcaupii Johnson = 
Murana pinnata Gronovr.) 
Characters of the genus included above, joined; tSpay-^o:, 
gills.) 
590. S. piunatus (Gronow) Giinther. 
Uniform brown, rather darker below ; the vertical fins darker behind, 
light-edged anteriorly; inside of mouth blue-black ; gill-openings dark. 
Jaws subequal in length, sometimes the lower, sometimes the upper the 
longer ; the upi>er with a projecting fleshy tip ; maxillary reaching to 
opposite gill-openings, which are rather longer than the large eye. 
Uead 3^ in distance from snout to dor.sal, 2^ in distance to anal, Sj in 
length. Eye broader than interorbital space, rather nearer tip of snout 
than end of maxillary. Pectoral slender, longer than snout. New- 
foundland to Madeira, “ a common resident of the deep waters of the 
off-shore banks in 200 to 300 fathoms, where individuals are often taken 
on the fishermen's trawl lines.” 
{ifurcena pinnata Gronow, Syst. Ich. ed. Gray, 1854,19; Gunther, viii, 22; Goode & 
Bean, Bull. Es-sex lust, xi, 1879, 26.) 
