Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 349 



The skin has the peculiar rudimentary scales of AnguUIa; the teeth are 

 blunt, uniserial, on the edge of the jaws only, and there are no lips. 



151. SIMENCHELYS, Gill. 



Simenchelys, GILL, in GOODE & BEAN, Bull. Essex Inst., 27, 1879, (parasiticus). 

 Conchoynathm, COLLETT, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 122, 1889, (grhiialdii). 



Body eel-shaped, covered with linear embedded scales, disposed at right 

 angles as in Ancjuilla. Lateral line present, faint. Head very short, 

 rounded, very blunt anteriorly, slightly compressed. Mouth small, 

 entirely anterior. Premaxillaries and maxillaries of each side coalesced 

 and separated from those of the other side by the ethmoid. Jaws equal, 

 their edges hard, provided with a single series of small, rounded, close- 

 set, incisor-like teeth. No vomerine teeth. Tongue broad, somewhat 

 free anteriorly. Mandible very deep and strong. Operculum saber-shaped. 

 Gill openings very small, inferior, longitudinal, well separated, situated 

 in front of the pectorals and below them. Both nostrils large, the anterior 

 with a slight rim, but no tube. Lips full. Pectorals short; vertical fins 

 confluent around the tail, the dorsal beginning not far behind pectorals; 

 vent in front of anal, near middle of body. One species known, 

 pug-nosed; ey^e^vf, eel.) 



575. SIMENCHELYS PARASITICUS, Gill. 



Eye 1| to 2 in snout ; pectoral 2| in head ; head 4 to 4 in trunk ; tail a 

 head's length longer than head and trunk ; anterior profile of head bluntly 

 rounded; angle of mouth at a point half way between the tip of snout 

 and anterior edge of eye; body stout, the depth at vent about equal to 

 length of head ; dorsal beginning about a head's length behind gill open- 

 ings; color dark brown, nearly plain. Length about 2 feet. Offshore 

 banks, in deep water, south of Newfoundland ; also recorded from the 

 Azores ; abundant ; often found burrowing in the flesh of the halibut, 

 (whence the name^aras^tcws, parasitic.) 



Simenchelys parasiticus, GILL MS., in GOODE & BEAN, Bull. Essex, Inst., 27, 1879, Newfound- 

 land Banks ; BEAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1880, 113; JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 363, 

 1883 ; GPNTHER, Voy. Challenger, xxn, 252, 1887 ; JORDAN & DAVIS, I. c., 670. 



Conchognathus grimaldii, COLLETT, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 122, 1889, Azores. 



Family XLV. ILYOPHID^E. 

 (THE OOZE EELS.) 



This family contains a single species with characters intermediate 

 between the Simenclielyida* and the Synaphobranchidas, combining the gen- 

 eral physiognomy of SynapJio'brancJius with the separate gill slits and 

 long-bowed branchiostegal rays of Simenchelyidce. Deep-sea eels from the 

 eastern Pacific. 



152. ILYOPHIS, Gilbert. 



Hyophis, GILBERT, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1891, 351, (brtmneus). 



Body scaly ; pectorals well developed ; lateral line prominent ; gill slits 

 horizontal, inferior, well separated ; nostrils lateral, the posterior imme- 

 diately in front of the eye, the anterior with a short tube, near tip of 



