348 NEW YORK STATE MUSEOJM 



The female is much deeper bodied than the male, the depth 

 of body equaling one third of length of head, while in males it 

 is only one fourth of this length. Tail very long, slender, and 

 tapering, its length three fifths of total length without caudal; 

 snout a little longer than rest of head, with a well marked 

 median keel above and below, the upper one serrulate; occiput, 

 nuchal plates and opercle keeled, the carinations on opercle 

 sometimes nearly obsolete; belly slightly convex and with a 

 low keel; eye small, five in snout, three in postorbital part of 

 head; dorsal fin at a distance from tip of snout equal to two 

 and two thirds times length of head, the base of the fin one 

 fifth longer than head, the longest ray two sevenths as long as 

 base of fin, and about one third as long as the head, the fin 

 covering 5+5 body rings (4-5+5-4); anal fin of female reduced 

 to two or three rays on a very narrow bas<^, its length about 

 equal to length of eye; caudal convex when expanded, the mid- 

 dle rays longest, as long as the postorbital part of head; pec- 

 toral short, on a broad base, its length one fourth the length 

 of head. 1). 36 to 40 ; rings 19+37 (or 18 to 20+36 to 40.) 



Color brown above, pale below, everywhere mottled with 

 brown; under surface of snout pale, lower part of opercles 

 silverv. 



The common ]>i[>efish is abundant on our Atlantic coast from 

 Cape Ann to Virginia. It is known as the billed eel in Great 

 South bay. It is abundant in all parts of the bay. Though 

 this species is not valuable for food or bait, it is an interesting 

 aquarium fish and lias the same singular breeding habits as 

 the sea horse. After the ova of the females are excluded, they 

 arc received ami halclK'd, and the young are cared for, in the 

 marsui>iiiiii of iho male The species, according to De Kay, 

 ascends iIh- llmlsoii to Sing Sing, where it breeds in slightly 

 brackish water. It is to be found in shallow water among 

 aiiuatir plan Is. The female is conspicuously different from the 

 male in its colors and iIm' much greater depth of its body. The 

 l>iforisli is inoderaiejy abundant in summer in eelgrass and sea 

 leiiuce in r.ravcsend hay. In 1SU8 the state museum had it 

 from all parts ol ('-real South bay and from Shinnecock, 



