SNIG. 801 



APODAL 



MALACOPTERYGIL MURMN1D&. 



THE SNIG. 



Anguilla mediorostris, Snig Eel, YARRELL. JESSE, Glean. Nat. Hist. 2nd 



Series, pp. 75 and 76. 

 ,, ,, JENYNS, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 477, sp. 165. 



I AM indebted to the kindness of Mr. Jesse, and his 

 friend, Francis Mills, Esq. for the only specimens of this 

 Eel I have yet seen ; and from some differences in its exter- 

 nal characters, in its habits, and also in the comparative size of 

 the head, as well as some peculiarity in the five cervical verte- 

 brse that are nearest the head, I believe it to be a different 

 species from either of those previously described in this work. 



The specimens I have had were from the Avon in Hamp- 

 shire, where this Eel, rather remarkable for its yellow colour, 

 is called the Snig, and is considered distinct from the other 

 well-known and more common Eels. 



Dr. Hastings, in the Appendix to his Illustrations of the 

 Natural History of Worcestershire, page 135, says, that 

 besides an Eel called the Frog-mouthed Eel by the fisher- 

 men, from the extraordinary width of the mouth, identical, 

 probably, with the Broad-nosed Eel of this work, u there are 

 two distinct kinds of Eels in the Worcestershire Avon, the 

 Silver and Yellow Eel," which last may be similar to the Snig 

 of the Avon of Hampshire. 



