72 TELEOSTEI. PHTSOSTOMI. 



a triangular patch, with a narrow edentulous interspace ; those in 

 the lower jaw rather larger, with a narrow edentulous interspace 

 between those of each side, laterally they are in a single row : 

 palatine teeth in a band. Fins the dorsal commences before the 

 anal, which is situated in the last fourth or fifth of the total 

 length, the caudal is hardly conspicuous : all the fins are low. 

 Lateral line conspicuous. Colour a dull dirty brownish red in 

 estuaries, lightest on the abdomen. In clearer water this fish is 

 greenish or blackish green, the abdomen being paler. 



Hab. Estuaries and fresh waters within the influence of the 

 tides along the coasts of India and the Malay Archipelago, to the 

 Philippines : attaining to several feet in length. Apparently more 

 common in Bengal than in Malabar. 



Family II. 



Body elongated, cylindrical, or band-shaped : the humeral arch 

 not attached to the skull. The branchial openings in the pharynx 

 may be narrow or wide slits. Margin of upper jaw constituted 

 anteriorly by the premaxillaries, which are more or less coalescent 

 with the vomer and ethmoid, while the sides of the upper jaw are 

 formed by the maxillaries, which are furnished with teeth. Ver- 

 tical fins, when present, confluent or separated by a projecting 

 tail : pectorals present or absent : ventrals absent. Scales, when 

 present, rudimentary. The vent may be situated close to the root 

 of the pectoral fins, or a long distance posterior to the head. The 

 heart may be situated just, or a long distance, behind the gills. 

 Stomach with a blind sac. No pyloric appendages. Ovaries 

 destitute of oviducts. 



Eels (Anguilla) are not, as sometimes supposed, hermaphrodites, 

 but they breed in salt water. Large sterile females are found in 



Fig. 80. The above figure, from Sir W. Elliot's drawing, is a common 

 Leptocephalus of some mursenoid form. 



A number of larval fishes have been termed LeptocepJutli, or 

 " glass eels " (fig. 30). The development of some of them, it has 

 been suggested, may have been arrested at an early age, the fishes 

 dying before attaining their perfect state. L. spallanzanii is said 

 by Dareste to be a young conger : and Delage in 1886 (Compt. Eend. 



