FISHES. 107 



fins generally pale with a black margin, and the pectorals dusky, margined with 

 lighter. 



The sexual organs of the conger are much more conspicuous than those of the 

 common eel, and, indeed, the female has sometimes an exuberant supply of eggs, and 

 almost bursts on account of them. Dr. Hermes relates, in fact, that a female in the 

 Frankfort aquarium did actually " burst on account of the extraordinary development 

 of the ovaries : " the conger in question weighed twenty-two and a half pounds, and 

 the ovaries eight pounds ; it was calculated that there were 3,300,000 eggs. The eggs 

 are lai-ger than those of the eel, having a diameter of about a third of a millimetre, 

 while those of the eel are only about a fifth to a fourth of a millimetre in thickness. 

 Except in relative development, however, the sexual organs of the two forms are 

 essentially alike. As in the eel, the sexes are as a rule externally distinguishable, and 

 the male is considerably smaller than the female. 



The conger is a strictly marine fish, and does not ascend rivers like the eel ; it also 

 prefers rather deep water, and, although abundant in the British waters and a very 

 commoli market fish, it is rare on the American, or at least rarely taken by the fisher- 

 men or brought to market. 



A strange eel, found only in deep water, and named by the fishermen the pug-nose 

 eel, and by naturalists Simenchelys parasiticus, is related to the true eels, but has been 

 set apart as the type of a peculiar family, the Simenchelyid^. It has most of the 

 osteological characters of the preceding, but the front, instead of being narrow and 

 attenuated, is blunt and rounded, whence the names given to it. It has scales like 

 those of the common eel. Many individuals have been obtained attached to the hali- 

 but, into whose flesh they had burrowed. Specimens' have as yet only been found on 

 off-shore banks south of Newfoundland. 



The Ophichthyidjs form another family of eels quite well represented in the ex- 

 treme southern waters bounding the United States ; they may be readily recognized 

 by the peculiar situation of the nostrils, which perforate the margin or even inner 

 sides of the lips. Species of several genera {Ophichthys, Ophisnerus, Gallechelys, and 

 Leiharchus) have been found around Florida, and of another {Myrichthys) on the 

 Pacific coast. 



A family abounding in species in all tropical seas is that of the Mur^nid^. 

 These are remarkable for the rudimentary condition of the palato-pterygoid arch and 

 opercular bones, as well as for the lateral extension of the ethmo-vomerine elements, 

 and the consequent removal backwards of the upper jaw-bones; the branchial skeleton 

 is also much reduced ; pectoral fins are generally absent. Most of the species have form- 

 idable sharj) teeth, and are quite vicious in their habits, biting severely, and capable 

 of inflicting terrible wounds on an incautious assailant. One species is found in the 

 Mediterranean, the common murry or Muroena lielena ; and an anecdote, in which 

 Vedius Pollio was punished for ordering an offending slave to be thrown to the 

 Muraenas, is familiar to most lovers of classical history. Five species of the family 

 have been taken in the sub-tropical American waters. 



Another family, the Moeiivguid^, is related to the Mursenidse, but is distinguished 

 by some remarkable modifications of structure. The pterygo-palatine arch is imper- 

 fect, as is also the opercular apparatus, according to Professor Cope, but the form is 

 distinguished by the elongation of the abdominal portion, the caudal portion being 

 shorter, and, above all, the heart is peculiar in being far behind the branchias. The 

 species are all inhabitants of the Oriental seas ; they are snake-like, or, as the name of 



