ANGLESEY MORRIS. 



313 



posterior part of the head, it descends to the abdominal line, 

 which it traverses without convolution to the vent. This 

 canal may be distinctly seen in the perfect fish when placed 

 flat on a slip of glass, and looked at against a good light, 

 particularly the descending portion from the head to the 

 level of the abdominal line. 



The head is small, short, and rather blunt : the eyes large ; 

 irides silvery, the pupil dark : the lower jaw slender ; teeth 

 in both jaws, numerous and minute : gill-openings and pec- 

 toral fins very small ; the body behind the head becomes 

 deeper, very much compressed, as thin as tape, and when 

 rendered opaque by the effect of a mixture of spirit of wine 

 and water, which is the best mode of preserving them, this 

 fish very much resembles a piece of a tape-worm. 



The dorsal fin commences rather before the middle of the 

 whole length of the fish ; the anal fin rather behind it ; and 

 both extend to the tail, where they are united, and end in a 

 point. These fin-like appendages have the appearance of an 

 extension of the skin, and are so delicate that it is not al- 

 ways easy to decide where they do begin, or may be called 

 fin ; the dorsal and abdominal margins, as well as the lateral 

 line, exhibit a series of small black specks : the obliquely 

 striated appearance of the sides has been already referred to. 

 The general colour is most like that of opal. 



I have had opportunities of examining specimens from 

 the Mediterranean which were identical with those from 

 Cornwall, as well as those described and figured in the En- 

 glish works already referred to. M. Risso includes but one 

 species in his fishes of Southern Europe and the Environs of 

 Nice, which he has named Leptocephalus Spallanzani, torn, 

 iii. p. 05 ; but the description so exactly accords with 

 English specimens, that I have no doubt it is the fish I have 

 seen, and the same as that on our own shores. 



VOL. II. Y 



