Fig. 469.—Eel-pout, Lycodes reticulatus Reinhardt. Banquereau.
Fig. 470.—Lycenchelys verrilli (Goode & Bean). Chebucto, Nova Scotia.
Fig. 471.—Scytalina cerdale Jordan & Gilbert. Straits of Fuca.
The family of Scytalinidæ contains a single species, Scytalina cerdale, a small snake-shaped fish which lives in wet gravel between tide-marks, on Waada Island near Cape Flattery in Washington, not having yet been found elsewhere. It dives among the wet stones with great celerity, and can only be taken by active digging.
To the family of Congrogadidæ belong several species of eel-shaped blennies with soft rays only, found on the coasts of Asia. Another small family, Derepodichthyidæ, is represented by one species, a scaleless little fish from the shores of British Columbia.
The Xenocephalidæ consist of a single peculiar species, Xenocephalus armatus, from the island of New Ireland. The head is very large, helmeted with bony plates and armed with spines. The body is short and slender, the ventrals with five rays, the dorsal and anal short.
The Cusk-eels: Ophidiidæ.—The more important family of Ophidiidæ, or cusk-eels, is characterized by the extremely anterior position of the ventral fins, which are inserted at the throat, each one appearing as a long forked barbel. The tail is leptocercal, attenuate, the dorsal and anal confluent around it. Ophidion barbatum and Rissola rochei are common in southern Europe. Rissola marginata is the commonest species on our Atlantic coast, and Chilara taylori in California. Other species are found farther south, and still others in deep water. Genypterus contains numerous species of the south Pacific, some of which reach the length of five feet, forming a commercial substitute for cod. Genypterus capensis is the klipvisch of the Cape of Good Hope, and Genypterus australis the "Cloudy Bay cod" or "rock ling" of New England. Another large species, Genypterus maculatus, occurs in Chile. A few fragments doubtfully referred to Ophidion and Fierasfer occur in the Eocene and later rocks. The Lycodapodidæ contain a few small, scaleless fishes (Lycodapus) dredged in the north Pacific.