ANGUILLIFORMES. 273 



[114.] 1. Ophidium stigma. (Bennett.) Branded ophidium. 



Family, Anguilliformes. Cuv. Genus, Ophidium. Linn. 

 Ophidium stigma. Bennett, App. Beechey's I'oy. ined. 



The ophidia resemble the anguillce in the backward position of the vent and the 

 union of the dorsal and anal to the caudal, which forms a pointed extremity to the 

 fish ; the body is long and compressed like the blade of a sword, and covered, as 

 in the eels, with small scales planted irregularly in tlie substance of the skin. 

 These fish differ, however, from the eels in the wideness of their gill-openings, 

 which are furnished with a conspicuous operculum, and a membrane supported by 

 short rays : their dorsal rays are jointed but not branched. — The genus is sub- 

 divided in the Regne Animal into the true ophidia, which have two pairs of small 

 barbels attached to the tip of the hyoid bone and depending from the throat ; and 

 Xhefierasfers, which want these appendages, and have a dorsal so slender that it 

 looks like a mere fold of the skin. The Cirrhous ophidium of Dr. Mitchill, which 

 is an inhabitant of the New York seas, belongs to the first division ; but the Spi- 

 nous ophidium of the same author is evidently a centronotus, and of the same 

 species, or at least very nearly allied to the Labrador fish which we have described 

 at page 91. 



The Branded ophidium of Mr. Bennett was discovered in Kotzebue Sound, on 

 Captain Beechey's recent voyage to Beh ring's Strait, but the only specimen that 

 was obtained was not preserved. 



" The caudal, dorsal, and anal fins were united into a transparent ridge; the scales were 

 very small, and the rays of the branchial covering- distinct." — Collie. " Its colour dilute- 

 brown with void swathes or spots, and a purplish spot near the beginning of the dorsal fin. 

 Its snout obtuse, chin with a large gibbosity, and teeth small. Its length five inches." — Lay. 

 Its peculiar characters, gathered from the notices preserved of it, are thus summed up by Mr. 

 Bennett. — "Ophidium (imberbe?) pallide brunneum, fasciis maculisque plurimis ; macula 

 magna purpurea, ad ortum pinnae dorsalis. n — Bennett, 1. c. 



/ 



2n 



