196 MARKETABLE BRITISH MARINE FISHES 



know that, as in the case of the pilchard and herring, some fish 

 of a family may have buoyant eggs while the eggs of others 

 develop at the bottom, and, as mentioned above, no buoyant 

 eggs which resemble those attributed to the eel family have yet 

 been observed in British waters where the eel and conger are so 

 abundant. Only two species are commonly found in British 

 waters, namely, the common eel and the conger, but a third, the 

 Murcena, is recorded to have been twice taken on the south 

 coast of England. The peculiarities distinguishing the two 

 former are the following. 



The Eel : eyes small, upper jaw shorter than the lower, 

 dorsal fin commencing a considerable distance behind the 

 pectoral ; small scales embedded in the skin. 



The Conger: e\^es large ; upper jaw larger than the lower ; 

 dorsal fin commencing close behind the pectoral ; no scales. 



The Eel {Angiii/la vulgaris). 



DistingnisJung CJiaracters. — -Gill openings rather small, eye 

 small, upper jaw not longer than the lower, dorsal fin commencing 

 some distance behind the pectoral. Teeth small, not in rows. 

 The cleft of the gape extends back to the middle or hinder edge 

 of the eye. Small scales embedded in the skin. The colour is 

 dark olive along the back, white or yellow on the belly. The 

 females grow to over 3 feet in length. 



Habitat. — The eel is found in all the fresh waters of Europe, 



except the Arctic regions, the Danube, the Black Sea and the 



Caspian ; it also occurs on the Atlantic side of North America. 



Their food is varied, and consists of almost anything alive 



that they can swallow, and also carrion. 



Breeding. — The male sexual organ of the eel was first 

 described by the Italian naturalist Syrski, at Trieste, in 1873 ; 

 the organ, as seen by him, was not in the ripe condition, but 

 differed from the female organ in being smooth outside and 

 formed of fleshy lobes, in the interior of which were tubes and 

 a main conducting tube opening to the exterior behind the 

 vent. The female organ is a narrow band with folds across on 

 the outer surface, these folds containing the eggs embedded in 

 fatty tissue. Since the discovery of the male organ it has been 



