ANGUILLIFORMES. 271 



[112.] The Ophidium viride of the Fauna Gramlandica is unknown to 

 Cuvier, though he believes it to be allied to the Eels. The species is said to attain 

 the size of a cod, but the only specimen seen by Fabricius measured no more than 

 two inches. It is taken with a hook and bait in deep water, on the southern coast 

 of Greenland, and is eaten, when of sufficient size, by the natives, who call it 

 oonernak. 



It resembles a blenny in form, the head being broader than the body and grooved betwixt 

 the eyes. The mouth is wide, beardless, and toothless ; the gill-rays are seven in number, 

 the membrane ventricose ; there are eleven rays in the pectorals ; the dorsal, beginning behind 

 the head, is, together with the anal, united to the caudal, whose longer rays are produced to 

 a point; there are no ventrals; the anus is situated nearer to the head than to the end of the 

 tail. The whole fish has a green colour except the belly, before the anus, and the fins, which 

 are white. Fauna Grcenl., p. 142. 



A fish taken from the stomach of a kittiwake gull, in Prince Regent's Inlet, 

 was considered by Captain James C. Ross, as identical with Fabricius's ophidium 

 viride, from its accordance with the description of that author. App. Parry s 

 Third Voyage, p. 110. 



[113.] 1. Saccopharynx ampullaceus. The Bottle-fish. 



Family, Anguilliformes. Cuv. Genus, Saccopharynx. Mitchill. 

 Ophiognathus ampullaceus. Harwood, Ph. Tr., An. 1827, p. 49, pi. 7. 



In this singular genus the body, capable of being inflated like a sack or 

 leathern bottle, is terminated by a very long and slender whip-like tail, edged 

 above and below by the narrow dorsal and anal which unite at its tip. The 

 mouth, armed with long sharp teeth, is cleft far past the eyes, which are close to 

 the very short pointed snout. The gill-openings, having the form of irregular slits, 

 and large enough to permit the three branchiae to be seen, are under the very small 

 pectorals. The skin is soft, slimy, loose, and slightly granular in appearance. 

 The extensibility of the jaws and throat is extraordinary, being even greater 

 than that exhibited by the serpent tribe. Only two examples of the genus are 

 known to have been taken, and, with the exception of dimensions, they realise 

 many of the popular accounts of the great American sea-serpent. They are vora- 

 cious fish, with a capacious stomach and short straight gut. One of the specimens 

 had recently before its capture swallowed a fish longer than its own body, and the 



