140 



Skrpestiform Apodals.- 



-FISHES.- 



-MURJENOIDS. 



the whole erection, the Eels, which always follow the 

 edge of the stream, and are attracted hy the verdure, 

 crowd along the liiirdle-palisade in vast numbers, enter 

 between the willow-hedges, and are by them guided 

 into the box-traps that are often filled in a single tide. 

 These Eels, Charlevoix says, are larger than the Euro- 

 pean ones, are very oily, and whatever be the care 

 bestowed in cooking them, always retain a wild flavour. 

 They are supposed, he informs us, to descend from 

 Lake Ontario, and to return thither again because of 

 the persecution tliey encounter from the White Por- 

 poises when they reaoli the tide-way. The descent 

 of Eels to estuaries for the purpose of spawuiLg was 

 unknown to Charlevoix. 



Fajiily III.— JIUR.EXOIDS (Murccnada:). 

 Plate 1, fig 4. 



This family, like the preceding one, belongs to that 

 dis'ision of the Serpentiform Apodals in which the pos- 



Fig. 33. 



terior nasal orifices are exterior to the lips, and arp 

 exposed to view. In its members also the gill-openings 

 are lateral, one on each side, with a considerable inter- 

 mediate space below ; their smooth and slippery skin 

 is destitute of scales, and their liaunts are almost exclu- 

 sively marine. They are abrachial as well as apodal, 

 and some forms, being also destitute of vertical fins, 

 are wholly ajjterons (finless). 



Tlie dentition v.iries witli the ^enug. The gener.a are — 

 MurctRn ; Sidera ; Encheli/mtssa ; Eurymyctefa ; Enc/ielf/core ; 

 Thyrsoiden ; LimamurcEiia ; Polynranodtm ; Chminornurana ; 

 Hfurcenoblenna ; Pcecihpkis ; Gymnomurwna ; Aphlhahmchtliy» ; 

 Uropterygius ; Apterickthys ; Privmothonus ; ;ind Morhiyiia ; 

 for an accouct of wliich the student ia referred to Dr. Kaup's 

 Catalogue. 



No special fishery has been established, as far as we 

 know, for the capture of the numerous fish of this 

 family, commonly called Marries ; and we know little 

 of their habits beyond their being bold and voracious 

 animals. One called Pipiro by the natives is men- 



The Fipiro (Poecilophis variegats). 



tloned in the narrative of Cook's third voyage as inhab- 

 iting the reefs of Palmerston Island, and instead of 

 shunning its pursuers, coming fiercely towards tliem, 

 raising its head out of the water and attempting to 

 bite. 



A Murry, which is not uncommon on both sides of the 

 ."Vtlantic, as well as in the Australian seas, occasionally 

 appears off the coast of Cornwall, and is abundant in 

 the Mediterranean; it bears the scientific appellation of 

 Murccna helena. During the Empire the Ilomans, taking 

 advantage of its ability to live in fresh water, kept this 

 fish in stews; and Pliny relates in liis "Natural History" 

 that Vedius Pollio, a Pomau kniglit, one of the intimate 

 friends of Augustus Cossar, proved the fierceness of 

 these fish by throwing condemned slaves into his fish- 

 jionds to be devoured by them ; not, says Pliny, that 

 he lacked wild animals wherewith to feed his fish, but 

 because he was of too tender a nature to behold an 

 entire man torn to pieces in any other way ! ! Caius 

 Ilirrcus, who kept stews for Murries, presented the 

 public with six thousand of these fish when Ceesar 



triumphed as dictator. Lieinius Crassus trained his 

 Murries to be obedient to his voice ; Hortensius Orator 

 is said to have formed so strong an attachment to a 

 JIurry that he wept when it died ; and Antonius 

 Drusus adorned one that he loved with earrings. The 

 Murries brought from Taitessus, which were much 

 esteemed by the Romans, were also of the species 

 named Murana helena, which still abounds at Cadiz 

 and the Straits of Gibraltar. Brydone says that the 

 Murries of the Faro di Messina were the finest fish he 

 ever ate, so tliat it was probably merely the greater 

 cost of those which were obtained beyond the Pillars 

 of Hercules that gave them so much favour in the eyes 

 of the Romans. Pliny attributes to the Jlura'ua the 

 habit of leaving its ponds and travelling overland, 

 which the common eel is known also to do. Gym- 

 nomtirana is entirely destitute of fins, and in Aphthal- 

 micldhijs the only vestiges of a fin are a few soft rays 

 at the tip of the tail. Apterk-hthys cavns has merely 

 rudimentary eye-balls covered with skin, and cannot 

 possess distinct vision. 



