Ophidium fishes. MALACOPT. 201 
ingly a rare species, it has since been found by Mr Lewis Morris, the Rev. 
H. Davis, and Mr Anstice. 
Gen. LI I. OPHIDIUM.^ — -Anal, dorsal, and caudal fins 
united ; tail pointed. 
112. O. imberbe . — Lower jaw beardless. 
Linn. Syst. i. 431. Pmn. Brit. 2^ool. iii. 398. Mont. Wern. Mem. i. 95. 
t. iv. f. 2 — Coast of Devon. 
Length 3 inches. Purplish brown ; bluish spots along the base of the anal 
fin. Head obtuse, body compressed towards the tail. Mouth ascending ; 
lips marginated. Eyes large ; irides dark, with a silvery circle round the 
pupil. Vent near the middle. D. 77, P- H, A. 44, C. 18. Pectorals round- 
ed ; the dorsal fin commencing immediately above them — This species, as a 
British production, was first communicated to Pennant from Weymouth by 
the Duchess Dowager of Portland. Montagu has since found it on the south 
coast of Devon. 
The O. barbatum, a species readily distinguished from the preceding by the 
lower jaw having two bifid cirri, has been noticed by Berkenhout in his Sy- 
nopsis, p. 66. as a British production, without any intimation respecting the 
circumstances of its capture. He, however, takes no notice of the O. imber- 
be^ which had previously appeared in the British Zoology. 
Gen. LIII. AMMODYTES. Launce, — Dorsal, anal, and 
caudal fins disjoined. Neither coeca nor air-bag. Tail 
forked. 
^ 113. A. Tobianus. Common Launce.—Lower jaw longest ; 
lips protrusile forwards and downwards. 
Sandils, Merr. Pin. 187. — Ammodites, Sibb. Scot. 24. Will. Ich. 113 
Amm. Tob. i. 430, Penn. Brit. Zool. iii. 156 — Common on sandy 
shores. 
Length 3 to 5 inches. Above bluish-green, with a darker band on each 
side ; sides and belly silvery. Head small, pointed. Irides silvery. Late- 
ral line straight. D. 54, P. 15, A. 28, C. 16 — This species is the favourite 
food of salmon and many other kinds of fish — M. Lesauvage, in the Bulletin 
des Sciences, Sept. 1824, has instituted another species of this genus which 
he terms A. lanceolatus, and which has probably in this country been con- 
founded with the preceding. Pie assigns to it the following character : “ B. 
7, D. 58, P. 13, A. 30, C. 16. Lon- 9 ponces, machoire extensible se redres- 
sant verticalement, en entrainant dans sa direction Textremite mobile de la 
machoire non extensible.” 
