becoine gradually rarer, probably because a greaf many of tliem have beeu 

 fishrd, and tlic rost arc not so thin any more. 



These large, yellow, liroad-noscd« eels liave aniong the tisliermen at 

 various piaces particular naines, sucli as »Klrppaal«. »BrrdpanderK, »Bred- 

 hoveder<i, Prol-uvaUweri (i. e. »Iti/ryers«). Also outside Denmark the tishernien 

 give them special names, in Sweden for instance »Shil-dl«, in Germany 

 »I)icH-opf'<. »Tiamshrpfii, or »Tansmeisfer«, the latter evideutly on account of 

 tlieir thin. lean hody, in Hngland » frog-niouthed eels«, »f/ri;/«. or »f/hif«. etc. 



These eels ha\e by several, especially earlier, authors been raised to the 

 liononr ol' being a particular species or at least a variety (Yarrell and Krøi/pr, 

 otc), ilut as the bulk of them is ouly represented by fpriitiirs it will be seen 

 l'rom tilis reason already tliat this view is nntenable. Tliough 1 have .seen 

 many hundreds of these large-headed and thin eels, I never succeeded 

 more tlian anyhody else in finding males among them, so numerous or so 

 strongly marked »frog-mouthed« eels that they together might be supposed to 

 represent the males of this species. Also other characters speak very distinctly 

 against the above-mentioned view, and particulariy the faet that the ovaries 

 of the.se fi'og-moutbed eels as a rule are but little developed, being at about 

 the same stage of development as those of all otliev yellow eels. To this mat- 

 ter, iiowever, I shall return later on. 



Tiie frog-mouthed eels are found in great iiurabers botb in salt and in 

 fresli water; the value of those taken in our little fjords during the summer 

 is certainly considerably above 100,000 Kroner, so that they are exceedingly 

 connuon at certain seasons, hofh in fresh nvrl in salf irater. 



By comparing the figures 1 å- 2, plate I, we shall see that the large yel- 

 low female eel is very like the smaller female eel; the characteristic Hat snout, 

 the small upturued ej'es, the ineonsiderable height of the body over the pectorals, 

 the light-coloured pectorals rounded behind, are common to both of them, and 

 in these characters they resemble all other yellow eels. Tlie latter may be 

 recognized also by their thin skin in which the scales are but slightly A'isible; 

 nor do we find, in the skin, many of those small .silvery particles ((jKcmin cn/- 

 sfals) which are so exceedingly jn-omiueut in the silver eels, so that the princi- 

 pal colours of the skin are only dully-white, yellow, or, where these colours 

 are covered with the black pigment-cells, more or less dark, always ^vithuut 

 any noticeable metallic lu.stre. — The lateral line and its raniifications are vi- 

 sible, but not liv far so distinct as on the silver eels. 



^^(LliRARY)gl 



