CLASS y. PISCES: ORDER 3. TELEOSTEA. 
453 
THE AJTACANTHINA. 
This term, from the Greek, signifies tviihout spines, and is descriptive of the group of fishes we 
are now to describe. The fins are entirely supported upon soft rays, and there are other struc- 
tural peculiarities We shall notice them under four heads, Ammodytidce, Ophidiidce, Gadidce, 
and Pleuronectidm. 
THE AMMODTTIDiE. 
This group includes several species having a naked skin, with a beautiful silvery luster, and a form 
resembling the eel. They are known by the name of Sand-JEels, from their habit of burying 
themselves five or six inches deep 
in the sand; they are captured by 
means of iron hooks and rakes, 
with which they are drawn out of 
their retreats. 
The Common Sand-Eel of 
Europe, Amniodytes Tohianus, is 
about a foot long. The Sand- 
Launce, a. lancea, is five or six 
inches long. These are not greatly 
esteemed for food. 
The American Sand-Eel, A. Americanus^ is six to twelve inches long; the Banded Sand- 
Launce, a. vittatus, is four to six inches long. Both are found on our coasts. 
THE OPHIDIIDJE. 
This group has the body slender and elongated, it being sometimes naked and sometimes 
covered with minute scales imbedded in the skin. They are small fishes inhabiting the sea. 
jggsgfiggs^s^^ . The Beardless Ophidium, 0. 
imberbe, is three or four inches 
long, color purplish-brown ; found 
on the EurojDcan coasts. The 
New York Ophidium, 0. mar- 
ginatum, is nine inches long ; color above ash-gray. It is occasionally taken on our coasts, 
where it is called Little CusJc by the fishermen. 
THE SAND-EEL. 
THE OPHIDIUJl. 
THE GADID^. 
This name is derived from the Latin gadus, a codfish, this being the type of the family. There 
are several genera, embracing, it is said, 
"^^^^^ 
^^^^^^^^^ 
more than sixty species. In general 
the body is of an elongated spindle- 
like form, produced behind into a long 
tail ; the skin is usually furnished with 
very small soft scales, which are entirely 
inclosed in separate sacs ; the median 
fins are of very large size, and usually 
divided into several portions ; the mouth 
is wide, furnished with numerous small 
teeth, and the margin of the upper jaw is entirely formed by the intermaxillary bones. The lower 
jaw is frequently furnished with a single cirrus, or beard, beneath its extremity, and the nose 
sometimes bears one or two pairs of similar appendages; the ventral fins, also, are sometimes 
reduced to a single ray, so as to acquire the appearance, as they no doubt perform the office, of 
cirri ; and these in some species are of considerable length, and give off" a branch from about the 
middle, which is sometimes longer than the main stalk. 
THE COMMON COD. 
