568 



.SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



there recurs in tlie Sanrl-l'lels the chjiracteristic, lo1)ate 

 process on the intennaxinary bones, though it is re- 

 raoved farther forward, to nliout the end of the first 

 third {Ammodytes tobianus) or fourth {Am. hniceolatits) 

 of the length of the bones. This resemblance maj' be 

 not without importance in a morphological respect. With 

 this exception, however, the intermaxillarj- bones of the 

 Sand-Eels are very unlike those of the Codtishes, not 

 only in their narrow and terete, almost needle-like 

 shape, but also in the more or less complete freedom 

 of the nasal processes, which vary considerably in length 

 and mobility, and are united to the anterior end of 

 the bones only by cartilage and ligaments. Tlie ske- 

 leton of the Sand-Eels is also distinguished from that 

 of the Codfishes in two other essential respects. Ribs 

 are attached to the abdominal vertebra? from the very 

 first of these bones; and in the caudal fin, which is far 

 more differentiated than in the Codfishes, and the base 

 of which is composed exclusively of the last two ver- 

 tebra and the urostyle, the develojiment of tlie hypural 

 bones is quite as typical as in the rest of the Teleosts. 

 Still, though we may find in the above-mentioned 

 points of resemblance to the Codfislies and the Gar- 

 pikes fully valid reasons of morphological significance 

 for the opinion advanced l»y GCntiier and other mo- 

 dern writers, that the Sand-Eels are Anacanthine fishes, 

 we are not destitute of grounds for a- close comparison 

 of these fishes with the Eels, though the latter are 

 assigned to a far distant place in the system by the 

 arrangement of the jaws and shoulder-girdle, as well 

 as by their character of Physostomous fishes. This 

 comparison is suggested by the scales. Their structure 

 most strongly reminds us partly of tlie Eels and partly 

 of Enclielyopus. In the Scandinavian Sand-Eels, as in 

 most fishes, and in a manner that especially calls to 

 mind the simple scales of our common Flatfislies, the 

 anterior part of the scale is quite different from the 

 posterior; l)ut here the difference is so marked that the 

 former rescinl)les in structure an entire scale of EncJie- 

 lijojiKS, with dense, concentric stria?, interrupted by 



grooves radiating from the nucleus, while the latter 

 resembles the scales of the Eels, with continuous con- 

 centric stria% l)ut with tlie grooves broken up into 

 more or less irregular, round or oblong, small patches. 

 On the anterior part of the scale too, the concentric 

 strite are about twice as dense (numerous) as on the 

 posterior part. The scales of tlie Sand-Eels also vary 

 considerably in form and development, not only in 

 different species but even in the same fish. All of 

 them are compai'utively small and tliin. Tlie most 

 developed are set on the Itack of the fish, the largest 

 of them, as usual, on the hind part of the body. These 

 scales are imbricated, with the posterior part free; and 

 they vary in shape from rounded to oblong or lingui- 

 form. ( )n the sides of the body the scales lie in der- 

 mal folds that run in an oblique transverse direction 

 downward and Ijackward from the lateral line proper, 

 which is situated high on the back, to the raised dermal 

 ridge that coasts each side of the belly, forming a 

 boundary between the latter and the sides of the liody. 

 On the belly itself, between these dermal ridges, the 

 folds are less sharply marked, but the scattered (not 

 imbricated) scales lie hidden in the skin, in ro\vs that 

 rfln from each dermal ridge obliquelv forward and in- 

 ward, towards a similar but lower dermal ridge at the 

 middle of the belly. The scales which lie in the skin 

 are of a broad oval (linguiform) shape, with the hind 

 extremity pointed". 



In their manner of life the Sand-Eels remind us 

 both of the Garpikes and of the Eels: in the open sea 

 they are active and eager in their pursuit of small 

 fishes and fry, but now and then they hide themselves 

 in the sand to escape their numerous enemies, just as 

 the Eels burrow in the sand and mud or creep into 

 crevices between the stones. 



The fainilv contains remarkablv few forms: among 

 the 4 or 5 known species'' only two genera can with 

 reason be distinguished, ilost of the species belong to 

 the Northern Hemisphere, both to the Atlantic and the 

 Pacific; but one species occurs in the Indian Ocean. 



" In tlie Indian species, wliicli Gl'nther lias ailoptcd as the type of a dislinet genus (Bleekeiia), the scales are said to be larger (of 

 moderate size), and the said dermal ridges are wanting. 



' Five distinct species have been described from .'iinerica. But the Greenland species is undoubtedly identical with our Sand-Launce, 

 and Jordan and Gilbert (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 10, ]ip. 414 and 009), who have rejected one species ns b.ised merely on a description 

 of a damaged specimen, advance the opinion that all the others are hardly more than varieties of the Sand-Launce. Brown-Goode, however 

 {Fisher., Fislier. Industr. U. S., sect. I, p. 244), insists upon maintaining a rigid distinction between the European and American Sand-Eels. 



