118 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
locality and at Beesley’s Point it is abundant. It will take the 
hook baited with flesh. Reaches a length of one foot and is not 
used as a food-fish. 
Synodus fetens Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 821.—Bean, Bull. 
U. S. F. Com., VII, 1887, p. 148.—Moore, Bull. U. S. F. Com., 
MIT, 1802; p. 359. 
Saurus mexicanus Baird, 9th An. Rep. Smiths. Inst., 1854, p. 
340. | 
Order APODES. 
The Eels. 
Key to the families. 
a. (Enchelycephali.) \Gill-openings well developed, leading to large inter- 
branchial slits; tongue present; opercles and branchial bones well 
developed. 
b. Scales linear, arranged in small groups and placed obliquely at right 
angles to those of neighboring groups, rudimentary and imbedded. 
ANGUILLID 
bb. Scales wholly wanting. LEPTOCEPHALIDA 
aa. (Colocephali.) Gill-openings small, roundish, leading to restricted inter- 
branchial slits; tongue wanting; opercles feebly developed. MURNIDAt 
Family ANGUILLIDE. 
The Eels. 
Body elongate. Head conic. Maxillaries lateral. ‘Teeth cardi- 
form. ‘Tongue distinct. A well-developed opercular apparatus. 
Lateral branchial apertures vertical. Branchial skeleton nearly 
perfect. Skin scaly. Vertical fins continuous with dorsal far 
from head. Pectorals well developed. 
The single genus of living forms distributed widely in tropical 
and temperate waters. They freely ascend all our fresh-waters 
and descend to the sea for the purpose of reproduction. In the 
latter they depart from the usual type in true fishes in the con- 
cealed generation and development of minute ova. A single 
species in most all our waters. 
