216 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



markets are usually supplied from the rivers, where they are taken in nets. At 

 Medford nets are stretched across the river, having in their middle a large bag 

 capable of containing from fifteen to twenty bushels ; as the eels are going up or 

 down the river they are caught, and are kept alive for the supply of the market 

 in large ditches, excavated near the river, which are supplied by the tide-water. 

 About three thousand pounds are yearly taken at Watertown. Those taken in 

 summer, when they are able to procure the britt, and other fishes upon which they 

 feed, are much the larger and richer, weighing from one to nine pounds. In Oc- 

 tober, 1844, I saw an individual measuring two feet and ten inches in length, and 

 weighing three pounds and a half, which was taken in Medford River, which agreed 

 in its measurements with the one I have above described, and was, I suppose, a 

 mere variety, although it was of a dark olive-brown above, and of a slate color 

 beneath, without the slightest tint of yellow, and a very slight tinge of red along 

 the anal fin. The fishermen suppose this peculiarity of color, which it appears they 

 occasionally see, is owing to their being confined entirely to fresh water, and never 

 having visited the sea. 



Massachusetts, Lesueur, Storer. Connecticut, Linsley. New York, Mitchill, 

 Dekay. 



GENUS II. AMMODYTES, Linn. 



Head and body elongated ; gill-openings large ; dorsal fin extending nearly the 

 whole length of the back ; anal fin of considerable length ; dorsal and anal fins 

 separated from the caudal fin. Lower jaw longest. Their stomach is pointed and 

 fleshy ; they have neither cceca nor natatory bladder. 



Ammodytes Americanus, Defaty. 



Sand-Eel. 



(Plate XXXIII. Fig. 2.) 



Ammodytes lobianus, Sand-Launce, Bloch, Mitch., Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. of N. Y., I. p 363. 



" " Sand-Eel, Storer, Report, p. 159. 



Ammodytes Americanus, American Sand-Launce, Dekay, Report, p. 317, pi. 52, fig. 167. 

 Ammodytes lancea, Atres, B-ost. Journ. Nat. Hist., iv. p. 280. 

 Ammodytes tobianus, Little Sand-Ed, Linsley, Cat. of Fishes of Connecticut. 

 Ammodytes lancea, Banded Sand-Launce, " " " 



Ammodytes Americanus, Storer, Mem. Amer. Acad., New Series, n. p. 489. 



" " " Synopsis, p. 237. 



Color. Of a dirty greenish-brown color upon the back ; the sides and abdomen are 

 silvery ; the top of the head is flesh-colored ; the preopercles are silvery ; the opef- 

 cula are cupreous and silvery. The pupils are black, the irides silvery. 



