SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 379 



The claim of this fish to a place in the North Carolina fauna is based on 2 

 small specimens said to have been caught by Dr. Yarrow with hook and line 

 from the wharf at Fort Macon in May, 1871. The species has been observed by 

 no one else, and must be regarded as a rare straggler so far south, assuming there 

 has been no error in identification. Jordan & Evermann (1898) give the range 

 as extending from Labrador to Delaware. The eel-pout reaches a length of 3 

 feet and a weight of 7 pounds, and is a common fish in the northern part of its 

 range, and is often caught incidentally by fishermen; although its flesh is of good 

 flavor, it is rarely eaten. The young are brought forth alive. 



Family OPHIDIID.E. The Cusk-eels. 



Eel-shaped marine fishes with compressed body; large head; villiform teeth 

 in jaws, usually in roof of mouth; protractile premaxillaries; wide gill-openings, 

 the membranes attached to isthmus posterior to ventral fins; scales small, in 

 oblique rows; pyloric coeca and air-bladder present; vent posterior; dorsal and 

 anal fins destitute of spines, low, and confluent around tail; ventral fins jugular, 

 consisting of a long, forked filament. Five or 6 American genera, only 1 repre- 

 sented on the east coast of the United States. 



Genus RISSOLA Jordan & Evermann. Cusk-eels. 



Form moderately elongate; lower jaw included; jaw teeth villiform, vomer 

 and palatine teeth blunt; vent posterior to pectorals; no spine on opercle; scales 

 much as in the common eel (Anguilla), head naked; air-bladder short, broad, with 

 a posterior foramen. One American species. (Named for Risso, a French ich- 

 thyologist.) 



328. RISSOLA MARGINATA (DeKay). 



Cusk-eel. 



Ophidium marginatum DeKay, New York Fauna, Fishes, 315, 1842; New York Harbor. Yarrow, 1877, 206; 



Beaufort. Jordan & Gilbert, 1879, 371; Beaufort (after Yarrow). Jordan, 1886, 29; Beaufort. 

 Rissola maryinata, Jordan & Evermann, 2489, pi. cccliii, fig. 868. Gudger, 19056; Beaufort. 



Fig. 174. CusK-EEL. Rissola tnarginata. 



Di.\GNOSis (based on North Carolina specimen). — Depth .14 total length; head contained 

 5.3 times in length; mouth rather large, maxillary extending to or beyond posterior margin of 

 orbit; snout .25 head; eye somewhat longer than snout; gill-rakers short, papillose, 2 on upper 

 arm and 4 on lower arm of first arch; air-bladder tapering behind; dorsal fin beginning close 

 behind head and about length of head anterior to anal; pectorals .75 length of head; longest 

 ventrals ray .8 length of head and twice length of shorter. Color: back and sides golden yellow, 

 darker above; belly milk white; a dark lateral stripe from gill-opening to end of tail; a dark 

 stripe at base of dorsal fin; preopercle spotted; dorsal fin edged with white anteriorly, with 

 black posteriorly; pectorals transparent, edged with white; ventrals white, {marginata, 

 margined.) 



