Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/286

272 The Bearded Ophidium (Ophidium barbatum, .) is a native of the Mediterranean, but is said to have occurred on the coast of Britain. It

grows to eight or nine inches in length, and is of a silvery flesh-colour, slightly mottled with brown. It feeds on small fishes and crustacea; its flesh, though eaten, is in little esteem, being coarse and ill-flavoured.

Like the preceding Family the Eels have a serpent-like body, lengthened, and more or less cylindrical. They are covered with a thick, soft, slimy skin, in which their scales are deeply imbedded, and scarcely to be detected. The operculum and gills are concealed; the former being covered with the common skin, while the gill-aperture is very small, and placed far back. Hence, on the principle already explained, these fishes are capable of surviving a protracted deprivation of their ordinary element. The ventral fins are always wanting; as are sometimes the pectorals; the dorsal and anal are lengthened, and frequently united to the caudal, or united to the exclusion of the caudal. All the fins are