APODAL FISHES OF AMERICA AND EUROPE. 
6 37 
Habitat : East Indies ; once found at the Galapagos Islands. 
Etymology : Latin, like a crocodile. 
This species, said to have been once taken at the Galapagos, is known 
to us only through descriptions. 
Genus 18.— OPKISURUS. 
Ophisurus Lac<5pode, Hist. Nat. Poiss., n, 1800 (ophis ; serpens). 
Oxystomus Rafinesque, Caratteri, 63, 1810 (hyal'mus = serpens, young). 
Ophisurus Risso, Europe Meridional©, III, 206, 1826 (restricted to serpens). 
Leptognathus Swaiuson, Natur. Hist. Class’n. Fish., ii, 234, 1839 (oxyrhynch us = 
serpens). 
Leptorhynchus Smith, Illustr. Fishes S. Afr., 1840 ( capensis ) (the name six times 
preoccupied). 
Ophisurus Kaup, Apodes 7, 1856 ( serpens , not of Lac6p5de as restricted by Swaiu- 
son and Bleeker). 
Type : Murcena serpens L. 
Etymology: *0<pi <r, snake; oupd, tail. 
This genus is based on a single species found in the seas of Europe. 
In form of snout it differs materially from the other Ophisuroid eels, 
approaching in some degree to the beloniform jaws of Nemichthys. 
We adopt the name Ophisurus instead of Oxystomus or Leptognathus . 
The earliest restriction of Lacepbde’s genus, that of Risso, mad v serpens, 
the type of Ophisurus. The association of the name Ophisurus with 
the blunt-toothed species here called Myrichthys rests wholly on errors. 
ANALYSIS OF THE SPECIES OF OPHISURUS. 
a. Body slender, subterete ; head 3f in trunk ; head and trunk 2f in total length ; 
cleft of mouth half as long as head ; snout 3f in head; eye large, 3 in snout, 
nearer angle of mouth thau tip of snout ; dorsal beginning behind base of pec- 
torals at a distance equal to twice the length of pectorals ; pectorals If in snout. 
Color olivaceous, silvery below ; covered with many small brown specks, more 
numerous on back. 
80. OPHISURUS SERPENS. 
Murivna exacte teres cauda acuta apterygia Artedi, Genera Piscium, 24, 1738 (Rome). 
Murcena serpens Linmeus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, 244, 1758, (after Artedi) (and of copyists). 
Ophisurus serpens Lacephde, Hist. Nat. Poiss., ii, 198, 1801 ( fide Gunther). 
Ophiclithys serpens Gunther, vm, 65, 1870 (Bay of Naples; Atlantic; Damara Land; 
Japan; Australia). 
Echelus oxyrinclius Ratinesque, Caratteri, 64, 1810 (Sicily). 
Leptognathus oxyrhinchus, Swaiuson, Fish. Rep. and Arnph., ii, 396, 1839 (Sicily). 
Echelus microphthalmus Rafinesque, Caratteri, 64, 1810 (Palermo). 
Oxystomus hyalinus Rafinesque, Indioe, 62, 1810 (Palermo : larva). 
Leptorhynchus capensis Smith, III. Zool. S. Afr., Pise., pi. 6, 1838 ( fide GUnther). 
Murcena acutirostris Gronow (ed. Gray), Cat. Fishes, 19, 1854 (‘'America”). 
? Ophisurus macrorhynchus Bleeker, Verb. Bat. Gen., xxv, Murseua, 28, 1865 (Japan) 
( fide Gunther). 
Habitat : Southern Europe and southward, said to extend its range 
to Cape of Good Hope and Japan. 
Etymology : Serpens , serpent. 
