30 The Ed. 



SCIENTIFIC DESCEiPTioisr. 



ORDER I. Apodes. No ventral fins. 

 GENUS MUR^ENA. Murcena Anguilla. The Eel. 

 " Apodal Malacopterygii. Murcenidce. 



"Anguillaacutirostris, Sharp-nosed Eel. YARRELL, 



Zool Soc. 1831. pp. 133. 159. 

 Zool. Jour. vol. iv. p. 469. 



omnium auctorum. WLLLUGHBY, p. 109. g. 5. 

 acutirostris, Sharp-nosed Eel. JENYNS, Man. 



Brit. Vert. p. 474. sp. 163. 



" Murcena Anguilla, rAnguille. LINNAEUS, Bloch, pt. iii. pi. 73. 

 Common Eel. PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 191 . 

 "Anguilla Vulgaris FLEM. Brit. An. p. 199. sp. 109. 

 "Long Bee. CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 349. 

 Common Eel. BOWDICH, Brit. Fr. W. 

 Fish, no. 7. 



" Body cylindrical, elongated, covered with a thick and smooth 

 skin ; the scales very small, lubricated with copious mucous secretion ; 

 mouth with a row of teeth in each jaw; and a few on the anterior 

 part of the vomer ; pectoral fins close to a small branchial aperture ; 

 no ventral fins ; dorsal fin, anal fin, and caudal fin united. 



" The head is compressed, the top convex, depressed as it slopes 

 forward ; the eyes small, placed immediately over the angles of the 

 mouth ; irides reddish yellow ; the jaws very narrow, slightly rounded 

 at the end, the lower jaw the longest ; nostrils with two openings on 

 each side, one tubular the other a simple orifice ; both jaws furnished 

 with a narrow band of small teeth ; gape small ; various mucous pores 

 about the mouth and other parts of the head ; gill opening a small 

 aperture immediately before and rather below the origin of the pec- 

 toral fin ; the scales on the body rather small ; dorsal fin extending 

 over more than two thirds of the whole length of the fish ; anal fin 

 occupying more than half of the whole length ; both united at the 

 end, forming a tail ; the number of rays in the fins not easily ascer- 

 tained, from the thickness of the skin ; the lateral line exhibits a 

 long series of mucous orifices ; vertebrae 113. The vent includes four 

 distinct openings, the most anterior of which leads upwards to the 

 intestine, the posterior to the urinary bladder in a direction back- 

 wards ; and one elongated lateral opening on each side, communica- 

 ting with the cavity of the abdomen, as in other bony fishes." 



YARRELL, Brit. Fish, vol. ii. p. 284, and 295. 



