Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 341 



GymnonolHS carapo, BLOCH, Naturg., pi. 157, fig. 2, 1787; BLOCK & SCHNKIDER, Ichth., 521, 1801, 



;ui;il rays 193, fresh waters of America, (after fascialus, Pallas). 

 (,'>/ntiitns}iHtar>1, IiACKi'KPE, Hist. Nat. Poiss., n, 17G, 1801, Brazil. 

 Cantjim imrqinlitlnatits, VALENCIENNES, in d'Orb. Voy. Amer. Merid. Poiss., pi. 14, 1839. 

 C<mqin*fasciatutt, GrNTHER, Cat., VIII, 9, 1870. 



147. EIGENMANNIA, Jordan & Evermann, new generic name. 



<V///,A,;>.s, EIGENMANN, Ann. N. Y. Ac. Sci., vn, February, 1894, 625, (JmmbolUi) ; preoccupied in 



WORMS. 



This genus differs from Gymnotus or Sternopygus, only in not having 

 the orbital rim free. No trace of dorsal or caudal. Mouth mod- 

 erate, the jaws subequal, both with a patch or band of small villifonn 

 teeth ; a patch of minute teeth on each side of palate; snout moderate; 

 anterior nostrils on upper side of head; vent behind the orbit. Only 

 one species in our waters. (Named for Dr. Carl H. Eigenmann, in recog- 

 nition of his excellent work on the fresh-water fishes of South America.) 



571. EIGENMANNIA HUMBOLDTI (Steindachner). 



(MACANA.) 



Head 1| in greatest depth; P. 18, its length If in head. A. 24. Body 

 strongly compressed, the snout pointed. Eye without free margin, its 

 diameter 2 in snout, which is 3 in head. Mouth small, the jaws equal, the 

 upper as long as eye. Anal beginning below upper ray of pectoral ; vent 

 under posterior edge of interopercle ; scales largest near front of second 

 half of body, along lateral line ; scales on nape very small. Length li feet. 

 RioMagdalenaandRioMamoni, (near Panama). (Steindachner.) (Named 

 for Alexander von Humboldt.) 



Slernopygus humboldti, STEINDACHNER, Fisch-fauna des Magdalenen-Stromee, 55, 1878,Rio Mag - 

 dalena. 



We next append four orders of fishes which agree in the degradation of 

 the skeleton and in the eel-like form of the body, this form being pro. 

 duced by the development of a great number of vertebrae, and the corre- 

 sponding deterioration of the fins and their basal segments. These fishes 

 are all probably descended from extinct soft-rayed fishes, but the line of 

 descent is not yet traced. We put them in this place in the series because 

 less interruption seems to be caused by doing so than would result from 

 interpolating them elsewhere. 



Order O. SYMBRANCHIA. 



Body eel-shaped; premaxillary, maxillary, and palatine bones well 

 developed and distinct from each other, as in ordinary fishes. Shoulder 

 girdle joined to the skull in typical species, (in one family, Amphipnoidd', 

 distinct from the skull as in the eels). No mesocoracoid ; symplectic 

 present or absent; scales minute or wanting; no paired fins; vertical 

 fins rudimentary, reduced to folds of the skin; vent at a great distance 

 from the head; gill openings confluent in a single slit ; no air bladder; 

 stomach without blind sac or pyloric cosca ; ovaries with oviducts ; skull 

 solid, the bones firmly united; vertebne numerous, the anterior unmodi- 

 fied. Eel-like fishes, widely distributed in warm seas and in fresh waters. 



