Catalogue of the Fishes of Connecticut. 73 



*131. Echeneis albicauda, Mitchill, Suckfish, L. L Sound. 



Order IV, Apodal. 



Family AnguillidcB. 



*132. Anguilla Bostoniensis, Le Sueur, Common Eel, passim. 

 *133. Anguilla argentea, Le Sueur, Silver Eel, common. 

 # 134. Anguilla latirostris? Yarrell, Broad-nosed Eel, Hartford. 

 # 135. Conger occidentalis, Dekay, Conger Eel, Stratford. 

 *136. Ammodytes tobianus, Bloch, Little Sand Eel, Stratford. 

 *137. Ammodytes laneea, Cuv., Banded Sand-Launce, Long 

 Island Sound. 



131. This is what Dr. Storer, in his Report, considers the naucrates of Cuv., 

 but he has since ascertained it to be the albicauda. It is not uncommon on the 

 coast of Long Island, and is not unfrequently taken there in seines. They are 

 sometimes attached to vessels arriving in New England. Mr. Trumbull writes me 

 that one has been recently taken at Stonington, attached to another fish taken in a 

 seine, by which it adhered until thrown together into a boat. Length 7 to 8 inch- 

 es. The generic name is derived from *x w to hold, and vaws a ship, because they 



were anciently supposed, by attaching themselves to ships, to retard their progress 

 in sailing. 



a he E. quatuordecem laminatus, Storer, has been taken in Massachusetts; and 



the true naucrates from vessels in the harbor of New York, as well as on the banks 



of Newfoundland, as indicated by Dr. Dekay, but I have not been able to obtain 



either of them in Connecticut. 



!«**• Dr. Dekay has given a much better description of this eel, under the name 



ten uirostris y than any I have seen under LeSueur's Bostoniensis, and Dr. De- 



a y s name is also more appropriate, but I have used LeSueur's only on account of 

 J ts priority. 



*lo3. The silver eel is, I believe, much less in size than the Bostoniensis, but I 

 new one, I supposed to be of the former species, caught in a small stream in 

 Northfurd, that weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. It was killed by a lad with a large stick be- 

 Cause tne water of the stream was too shallow for him to escape. It was about 10 

 es fro *n salt water, and above such barriers, as is believed he could not have 

 jscended. The size of this eel, militates against the idea of Dr. Storer's and Dr. 

 De kay's oceanic eel, to which Dr. Mitchill, followed by Dr. Dekay, gave the 

 name of Anguilla occanica,— weight 9 lbs. 



|34. This eel, Mr. Ayres informs me, is common at Hartford, and he consid- 

 ers U the latirostris of Yarrell, or the macrocepkalus of LeSueur, or otherwise it is 

 described. 



*35. An intelligent fisherman in this town, assures me that he caught the con. 

 £ er eel last season at the mouth of the Housatonic. Said it was easily distinguish- 

 e " b y its under parts being so perfectly white, and thus unlike other eels. 



136. The little sand-eel (which is quite common) lies quiet in the sand on the 

 re u "til rising water. They then throw themselves out and are easily discov- 

 ered by their floundering on the shore, and are thus often picked up as bait for 



u e-fish. Their dorsal and anal rays are exceedingly various in their numbers. 



137. Dr. Dekay took a species of Ammodytes at Sag Harbor, which he consid- 

 6red identical with the laneea. but which he has named A. vittatus. I have a fine 



Vol. XI.VH, No. 1.— April-June, 1844. 10 





