Catalogue of the Fishes of Connecticut. 73 



*131. Echeneis albicauda, Mitchill, Sucklish, L. I. Sound. 

 Order IV. Apodal. 

 Family Anguillidce. 

 *132. Anguilla Bostoniensis, Le Sueur, Common Eel, passim. 

 *133. Anguilla argentea, Le Sueur, Silver Eel, common. 

 *134. Anguilla latirostris? Yarrell, Broad-nosed Eel, Hartford. 

 *135. Conger occidentalis, Dekay, Conger Eel, Stratford. 

 *136. Ammodytes tobianus, Bloch, Little Sand Eel, Stratford. 

 *137. Ammodytes lancea, Cuv., Banded Sand-Launce, Long 

 Island Sound. 



*131. This is what Dr. Storer, in his Report, considers the naucrates of Cuv., 

 but he has since ascertained it to be the albicauda. It is not uncommon on the 

 coast of Long Island, and is not unfrequently taken there in seines. They are 

 sometimes attached to vessels arriving in New England. Mr. Trumbull writes me 

 that one has been recently taken at Stoningion, attached to another fish taken in a 

 seine, by which it adhered until thrown together into a boat. Length 7 to 8 inch- 

 es. The generic name is derived from fx" to hold, and vatoj a ship, because they 

 were anciently supposed, by attaching themselves to ships, to retard their progress 

 in sailing. 



The E. quatuordecem laminatus, Storer, has been taken in Massachusetts; and 

 the true naucrates from vessels in the harbor of New York, as well as on the banks 

 of Newfoundland, as indicated by Dr. Dekay, but I have not been able to obtain 

 either of them in Connecticut. 



*132. Dr. Dekay has given a much better description of this eel, under the name 

 A. tenuirostris, than any 1 have seen under LeSueur's Bostoniensis, and Dr. De- 

 kay's name is also more appropriate, but I have used LeSueur's only on account of 

 its priority. 



*133. The silver eel is, I believe, much less in size than the Bostoniensis, but I 

 knew one, I supposed to be of the former species, caught in a small stream in 

 Northford, that weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. It was killed by a lad with a large stick be- 

 cause the water of the stream was too shallow for him to escape. It was about 10 

 miles from salt water, and above such barriers, as is believed he could not have 

 ascended. The size of this eel, militates against the idea of Dr. Storer's and Dr. 

 Dekay's oceanic eel, to which Dr. Mitchill, followed by Dr. Dekay, gave the 

 name of Jlnguilla oceanica, — weight 9 lbs. 



*134. This eel, Mr. Ayres informs me, is common at Hartford, and he consid- 

 ers it the latirostris of Yarrell, or the macrocepkalus of LeSueur, or otherwise it is 

 undescribed. 



*135. An intelligent fisherman in this town, assures me that he caught the con- 

 ger eel last season at the mouth of the Housatonic. Said it was easily distinguish- 

 ed by its under parts being so perfectly white, and thus unlike other eels. 



*136. The little sand-eel (which is quite common) lies quiet in the sand on the 

 shore until rising water. They then throw themselves out and are easily discov- 

 ered by their floundering on the shore, and are thus often picked up as bait for 

 blue-fish. Their dorsal and anal rays are exceedingly various in their numbers. 



*137. Dr. Dekay took a species of Ammodytes at Sag Harbor, which he consid- 

 ered identical with the lancea, but which he has named A. vittatus. I have a fine 



Vol. XLTii, No. 1.— April-June, 1844. 10 



