MALACOPTERYGII APODES. 257 



fishes to remain some time out of water without perishing. Their 

 body is long and slenderj their scales, as if encrusted in a fat and 

 thick skin, are only distinctly visible after desiccationj they have 

 neither ventrals nor caeca, and their anus is placed far back. This 

 genus has been successively separated into five or six genera, which 

 we are compelled to subdivide still more.(l) 



Anguilla, Thunb. and Shaw. — Mur^na, B1. 



Eels are distinguished by the two-fold character of pectoral fins 

 and of branchiae opening under them on each side. Their stomach 

 is a long cul-de-sac; their intestine straight, and their elongated na- 

 tatory bladder is furnished near the middle with a peculiar gland. 



Anguilla, Cuv. — Mur^na, Lacep. 



The dorsal and caudal evidently continued round the end of the 

 tail, forming by their union a pointed caudal. 



In the true Eels the dorsal commences at a considerable distance 

 behind the pectorals. 



In some, the upper jaw is the shortest. 



The common Eels belong to this division. The French fishermen 

 admit of four kinds, which they pretend constitute as many species, 

 but which are confounded by authors under the name of Murgena 

 anguilla, L.; they are the .^ng. vermiaux, which is, I think, the 

 most common; the dng. long bee, whose snout is more pointed and 

 compressed; the Jing. plat bee, or the Grig-eel, whose snout is more 

 flattened and obtuse, and eye smaller; and the ^ng. pimperneaux, or 

 the Glut-eel, whtve the snout is shorter in proportion, and the eye 

 larger.(2) 



In others the upper jaw is longest.(3) 



Conger, Cuv. 



The dorsal commencing close to the pectorals, or even on them; 

 the upper jaw longest in all the known species. 



(1) In none *of these fishes, to our knowledge, are the opercula or rays want- 

 ing-, as some authors have thought. The common Muraena has seven rays on 

 each side; the Mur. colubrina has twenty -five. These rays are even very strong 

 in Synbranchus, where the operculum is also com[>lete, and formed of all its 

 usual portions. N.B. The Echelus, liafin., Nov. Gen., p. 63, pi. xv, 1, 3, pi. 

 xvi, f. 2 and 3, would be of two kinds, the first Eels, and the other Congers, 

 without branchial opercula — but we doubt the truth of this character. 



(2) We will give a comparative description of them, with exact figures, in our 

 Icthyology. 



(3) Mur. longicollis, Cuv.— Lacep., II, iii, 3, under the false name of Murwna 

 myrus. 



Vol. II.— 2 H 



