The Apodes, or Eel-like Fishes 371 
taken for a snake. The best-known species is Nemichthys scolo- 
paceus of the Atlantic and Pacific. Nemuichthys 
avocetta, very much like it, has been twice taken 
in Puget Sound. 
Suborder Colocephali, or Morays.—In the 
suborder Colocephali (xolos, deficient; cepaan, 
head) the palatopterygoid arch and the mem- 
brane-bones generally are very rudimentary. 
The skull is thus very narrow, the gill-struc- 
tures are not well developed, and in the chief 
family there are no pectoral fins. This group 
is very closely related to the Enchelycephali, 
from which it is probably derived. 
In the great family of morays (Murenide) 
the teeth are often very highly developed. The 
muscles are always very strong and the spines 
bite savagely, a live moray, four to six feet long, 
being often able to drive men out of a boat. 
The skin is thick and leathery, and the colora- 
tion is highly specialized, the pattern of color 
Fi. 279. Fic. 280. 
Fig. 279.—Thread-eel, Nemichthys avocetta Jordan & Gilbert. Vancouver Island. 
Fig. 280.—Jaws of Nemichthys avocetta Jordan & Gilbert. 
being often elaborate and brilliant. In Echidna zebra for ex- 
ample the body is wine-brown, with cross-stripes of golden 
yellow. In Murena each nostril has a barbel. Murena helena, 
the oldest moray known, is found in Europe. In Gymnothorax, 
the largest genus, only the anterior nostrils are thus provided. 
Gymnothorax mordax of California is a large food-fish, as are 
also the brown Gymnothorax funebris and the spotted Gymno- 
thorax moringa in the West Indies. These and many other species 
may coil themselves in crevices in the reefs, whence they strike 
out at their prey like snakes, taking perhaps the head of a duck 
or the finger of a man. 
