4o8 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



a slit behind fourth. Pseudobranchise small. Air-vessel present. 

 Pyloric coeca present. Body usually covered with very small 

 scales which are not imbricated but placed in oblique series at 

 right angles with each other. Vertical fins low, without spines, 

 confluent around tail. Tail isocercal. Ventrals at throat, each 

 developed as a long forked barbel. 



Carnivorous fishes of most warm seas, some descending to con- 

 siderable depths. 



Genus Rissola Jordan and Evermann. 



The Sand Cusks. 



Rissola marginata (De Kay). 



Sand Eel. 



Head S/i ', depth 8% ; D. 154; A. 125 ; caudal 8; snout 4^^ in 

 head ; eye 4j^ ; maxillary 2^ ; interorbital space 6J^ ; pectoral 





^ 





\ 



Sand Eel. Rissola marginata (De Kay), 



I ys ; ventral i J4 • Body elongate, strongly compressed, and tail 

 not especially tapering from vent. Head obtuse, compressed. 

 Snout obtuse, bluntly conic, and protruding beyond mandible. 

 Eye anterior, a little longer than deep. Mouth rather large, little 

 inclined, and maxillary reaching a trifle beyond posterior margin 

 of pupil, but not that of orbit. Lips fleshy, a little thick. Teeth 

 small, pointed, in bands in jaws and those anteriorly a little en- 

 larged.. Broad patches of vomerine and palatine teeth a little 

 more obtuse. Tongue small, free and pointed. Interorbital space 

 narrow and a trifle convex. Gill-rakers 11 +4? lanceolate, strong, 

 and longest about ^ of horizontal diameter of pupil. Scales 

 elongate, or lozenge-shaped, numerous and irregularly adherent. 



