gJO NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



short; no cirri; eyes large, placed high; mouth moderate, with 

 a single row of rather small conic teeth on each jaw, palatine 

 teeth present or absent; gill openings prolonged forward below, 

 very narrowly united anteriorly to the isthmus, not forming a 

 free fold across it; dorsal composed of numerous sharp, flex- 

 ible, rather high spines; caudal fin long; anal many-rayed; 

 pectorals large, more than one half length of head, the middle 

 rays longest; ventrals well developed, jugular, I, 3 or I, -1; intes- 

 tinal canal long; pyloric caeca present; no air bladder. Chiefly 

 herbivorous. Northern seas. 



Subgenus leptoblexmus Gill 

 329 Lumpenus lampetraeformis (Walbaum) 

 Eel Blemiy; Snahefish 

 lilcnnius lampetraeformis Walbaum, Artedi Gen. Pise. Ill, 184, 1792; 



Iceland. 

 Blennius serpent inus Stoker, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. Ill, 30, 1848; 



Massachusetts Bay; Hist. Fisti. Mass. 91, pi. XVII, fig. 1, 1S6T. 

 Leptohleiinius serpentinus Goode & Bean, Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 10, 1879; 



Massachusetts Bay; Jordan i& Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat Mus. 



778, 1883. 

 Stichaens ishinclicus Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. Ill, 281, 1861. 

 Lumpenus lampetraeformis Collett, .Norske Nord-Havs Exp. 71, 1880: 



Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 778, 1888; Jordan & 



Eve RM ANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. Ill, 2438, pi. CCCXLIV, fig. 



J^O, 1898. 



The depth of the body is one fifteenth of the length, which is 

 nine times the length of the head. Head not large, its sides 

 sparsely covered with small scales; eye as long as snout; maxil- 

 lary rcucJiing front of pupil; gill openings extending forward 

 belo^v lor a distance less than length of snout; pectorals 

 long, seven eighths length of head; ventrals moderate, two and 

 two thirds in head. D. LXXV; A. 50; V. I, 3. 



Olive above with lighter cloudings; pale below; dorsal fin 

 binwnisli, with broad, oblique, white bands; pectorals pale. 



Tlic siiiilvM'fish inhabits the North Atlantic and Arctic on both 

 shore**, ranging south to Sweden and Norway, east to Spitz- 

 bergen ; on our coast extending south to Cape Cod and perhaps 

 Long Island, it is a common resident of the deep waters of 

 M.'is;i. hiiscUx l.;iv, wli.'i*' it is a favorite food of the cod and 



