Coe The Apodes, or Eel-like Fishes 
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 Colocephalz (colds, deficient; Kepadn, 
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 Enchelycephalt, 
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 being often able to 
drive men out of a boat. The skin is thick 
and leathery, and the coloration is highly 
specialized, the pattern of color being often 
Fig. 110. Fie. 111. 
Fig. 110,—Thread-eel, Nemichthys avocetta Jordan & Gilbert. Vancouver Island. 
Fig. 111.—Jaws of Nemichthys avocetta Jordan & Gilbert. 
elaborate and brilliant. In Echidna zebra for example 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. Gymmnothorax 
mordax of California is a large food-fish, as are also the brown 
Gymnothorax funebris and the spotted Gymnothorax moringa in 
the West Indies. These and many other species may coil them- 
selves 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. 
