THE SHADS, THE EELS, AND THE LAMPREYS 291 
be inferior to that of the Allis shad, and full of bones, hence 
the French name for the fish—/a feinte—which has been 
Latinised in its specific scientific name, fimta, and which Littré 
explains to signify que c'est une alose feinte—‘ that it is a 
false Allis shad.” 
Thirtyjirst Family: MURAENIDAE: THE EEL FAMILY 
The Eel Family presents certain strange modifications 
of vertebrate form, whereof some are so familiar as to have 
become the source of proverbial sayings. In this family ventral 
fins disappear, and the pyloric appendages, so numerous and 
various in many physostomous fish, have no existence. Scales 
are either absent or rudimentary. 
Genus ANGUILLA 
This genus is characterised by having very small scales 
embedded in the skin ; by its excessively elongated and almost 
cylindrical form; by the small teeth forming bands, and by 
the narrow gill-openings at the base of the pectoral fins. It 
contains twenty-five known species in the temperate and 
tropical zones, but none have been found in South America, in 
Western Africa, or on the western sea-board of North America. 
Two species are reckoned as natives of the United Kingdom. 
The Eel (Anguilla vulgaris) 
FIns. TEETH. 
Pectoral: 18 or 19 rays. Small, in bands on both 
Ventral fins absent. jaws and on the vomer. 
Dorsal, caudal, and anal fin united, contain- 
ing, according to Benecke, 1,100 soft rays. 
The history of some of the commonest words is very 
interesting, exemplifying the similarity which the neutral pro- 
cess in unlettered, primitive man bears to that of the highly- 
