522 AMERICAN FISHES. 
Congers swallow their prey head first, as a rule, but when committing an 
act of cannibalism they swallow their small brother often, if not always, tail 
first. If the youngster is a bit too big, you may often see him three parts 
swallowed, and when the big one is quite exhausted the other will wriggle 
out none the worse, except that it is scratched by the big one’s teeth. We 
have had this happen so often with the same fish that at last it has got as 
ragged and full of scratches as it could hold; some day, however, one of the 
big ones has given a mighty gulp, and once let its jaws close over the head 
of the little one, and we see it no more.’ In the fisherman’s boat the 
Conger struggles violently to escape ; it bites at everything within its reach, 
and with the aid of its prehensile tail casts itself overboard, unless stunned 
in time. Even when cut off from the body the head of the Conger has been 
known to inflict a dangerous bite.” 
It was the ribbon-like young or “eptocephalus of the Conger that was first 
identified as such and led to the announcement that all Zeptocephali were 
the young of different Eels. Many deptocephafi had been described as 
distinct species, but they were supposed to be related to forms very unlike 
Eels. McIntosh and Masterman, in “The Life History of British Marine 
Food-Fishes” (p. 455), have summarized the history of this form. “Prof. 
Carus, in a short article upon the group Leftocephalus, pointed out rea- 
sons for believing that it comprised a number of young stages of other 
species, but it was left to the American ichthyologist Gill, upon evidence 
derived from a comparison of the anatomical resemblances between the two, 
to definitely formulate the suggestion that Leptocephalus morrisit was the 
larval form of the Conger.” 
The only other Eels which we need mention are the Morays (Murenids). 
They are peculiar in the want of,a tongue, and this is the result of a remark- 
able modification of the entire branchial framework. Pectoral fins are also 
absent, and the skin is always naked. There are numerous species, and 
representatives are found in all tropical waters. One species, the common 
Moray (AM@urena helena), is a celebrated inhabitant of the Mediterranean 
Sea, and in ancient times was still more esteemed than nowadays. It was, 
during the declining days of the Roman Republic and the early Imperial 
times, the object of special culture. The story of an act of Pollio Vedius 
in connection with it has been often recorded, but almost always with the 
commission of a great mistake. 
Pollio, it has been told, had ponds with Murzenz, and “ was accustomed 
to feed them with human flesh, and whenever a slave displeased him, the 
