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 la feinte which has been 

 Latinised in its specific scientific name, finta, and which Littre 

 explains to signify que cest une alose feinte " that it is a 

 false Allis shad." ' 



Thirty-first Family : MUR^NID^E : 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. 



Pectoral : 18 or 19 rays. 

 Ventral fins absent. 



Dorsal, caudal, and anal fin united, contain- 

 ing, according to Benecke, 1,100 soft rays. 



TEETH. 



Small, in bands on both 

 jaws and on the vomer. 



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- 



