204 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS. — CLASS IV. PISCES. 
power a no less astonishing moral influence was inferred, for the ancients 
believed that tasting the Remora completely subdued the passion of love, 
and that if a delinquent, wishing to gain time, succeeded in making his 
judge eat some of its flesh, he was sure of a long delay before the verdict 
was pronounced. 
BONY FISHES. ORDER IV. MALACOPTERYGII APODA. 
The fishes of this order compose but one family, —the Murenide, — 
which are lengthened in form, have the skin thick and soft, the scales almost 
imperceptible, and but few bones. There are numerous genera. 
Mvurxexa. —This well-known genus, which contains our common Eels, 
has a long, slender, cylindrical body, seales nearly invisible, no ventral fins, 
and the vent far backwards. 
M. Vulgaris. —M. Bostoniensis (Le Sueur). —The Common Eel. 
The common Eel is most frequently*found in rivers and lakes, but also in- 
habits salt water, and is sometimes taken on our shores in incredible num- 
bers. Its ordinary size is from two to three feet, though it has been known 
to attain the leneth of six feet, and to weigh fifteen pounds. Though im- 
patient of heat and cold, the Eel can live longer out of the water than any 
other fish, and not rarely creeps upon the meadows and humid fields to 
eatch snails or worms —a faculty for which it is indebted to the small open- 
ing of its gill-covers. It is abundant in all our rivers and ponds, and is much 
prized as an article of food. Its color is a grayish-brown above, and yel- 
lowish-white beneath, with a reddish tinge about the tail. In the winter, 
it is speared through holes in the ice; at other seasons, it is taken in 
nets. 
AM. Argentea. —The Silver Eel. This fish differs from the former chiefly 
in color, which is silvery-gray, darker upon its upper portion, with a clear 
satiny-white abdomen. “It is taken in pots in October, when it leaves the 
ponds, and seldom at any other time.” 
M. Helena. —This Eel is common in the Mediterranean, and was cele- 
brated among the ancients, whe carefully fed it in ponds. The color is 
mottled-brown and yellow, and length from three to four feet. These fishes 
have a very ferocious temper, and are extremely voracious. Viedius Pollio 
amused himself and his friends by casting his offending slaves into the 
ponds where these Murcence were kept, and witnessing their destruction by 
these slimy monsters. 
Ammopytres. — Head and body as in the former, but the gill-openings 
are large, and the dorsal fin extends nearly the whole length of the back. 
