310 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 
ORDER IV. APODAL. 
No ventral fins. 
FAMILY ANGUILLIDZ. 
Body very much elongated and cylindrical, for the most part of a serpentiform figure. Scales 
scarcely apparent, being imbedded in a soft and thick skin. Air-bladder of various singu- 
lar forms. No cecal appendages. 
Oss. A very natural group, with numerous subdivisions, and comprising about one hundred 
species. 
GENUS ANGUILLA. Cuvier. 
The dorsal fin commencing considerably behind the pectorals, and uniting with the anal to 
form a caudal fin. Lower jaw longest. Mouth with a row of teeth in each jaw, and a few 
on the anterior part of the vomer. 
THE COMMON NEW-YORK EEL. 
ANGUILLA TENUIROSTRIS. 
PLATE LIIl. FIG. 173. 
Murena anguilla, Eel. Scumprr, Beschreib. u.s. w. Vol. 8, p. 138. 
The Common Eel, Anguilla vulgans. Mrrcuiu1, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y. Vol. 1, p. 360. 
The Fresh-water Eel. Mitrcuiit, Am. Month. Mag. Vol. 2, p. 241. 
Characteristics. Greenish olive above ; yellowish beneath. Head small, tapering to the jaws. 
Length one to two feet. 
Description. Body long, cylindrical, compressed on the sides of the tail, which is pointed. 
Surface covered with a thick mucus, concealing scales so exceedingly minute as to be visible 
only in the dried skin under a lens. Lateral line straight, indistinct. Head small, flattened 
above, and pointed; lower jaw longest. Eyes rather large in proportion to the size of the 
head, and placed just above the angle of the mouth. Nostrils horizontally oval, placed just 
before the eye, and on a line with the upper part of the orbit ; a short tubular cirrus on the 
anterior pair, on the edge of the upper jaw. Branchial aperture crescent-shaped, and just 
before the base of the pectoral fin. Numerous series of mucous pores about the head. ‘Teeth in 
both jaws, numerous, small, acute and crowded ; resolving themselves into three or four rows 
on the branches of the jaws, and forming on the anterior part of the upper jaw a large patch 
