334 
OPHiniUM EEL. 
of which we have preferred to copy; since the prospect of 
obtaining a drawing from a recent example is exceedingly 
uncertain. But it is said to be of common occurrence in and 
near the Mediterranean, in no great depth of water; and we 
may add, that beyond this, little is known of its appropriate 
habits. 
Montagu’s example only measured three inches in length, 
but that which we have represented was five inches and three 
fourths; the shape generally like that of an Eel, but with the 
head less depressed. Eye large; jaws about equal; lateral line 
straight. Petoral fin rather large; in Montagu’s figure the 
dorsal fin begins above the pectoral, but Pennant and Bloch 
agree in placing it back at about one third of the length of 
the fish from the snout. A yellow colour is so common to this 
fish, that it has been represented as among its specific marks; 
but as Bloch has not shewn it we have omitted it in our 
figure. This last-mentioned writer has also shewn a dark stripe 
as passing from the snout to the eye and superior portion of 
the gill-covers. Mr. Yarrell appears to have supposed that the 
likeness of this fish given by Schneider was copied from 
Pennant; but there are sufficient differences between them to 
shew that such was not the case; and that of the German 
naturalist may have been procured from an example obtained 
in the Baltic, where he says this fish is found; although it is 
not mentioned by Nilsson in his “History of the Fishes of 
Scandinavia.” 
