. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. 66 NATURAL SISTOEY. Greater Sand Eel. It sometimes readies a length of sixteen inches, but is rarely more than a foot long. It is found around the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, and the English Channel, and on most of the shores of the North Sea. The jaws of this species "have a remarkable power of expansion, so that prey can be swallowed of relatively large size. The animal swims rapidly, and is often taken in the net with Sardines and Anchovies. On the north coast of Cornwall the Launce fisheiy lasts from May to September. The fish ar
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. 66 NATURAL SISTOEY. Greater Sand Eel. It sometimes readies a length of sixteen inches, but is rarely more than a foot long. It is found around the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, and the English Channel, and on most of the shores of the North Sea. The jaws of this species "have a remarkable power of expansion, so that prey can be swallowed of relatively large size. The animal swims rapidly, and is often taken in the net with Sardines and Anchovies. On the north coast of Cornwall the Launce fisheiy lasts from May to September. The fish are chiefly used as bait, but .sometimes sold for the table. They are taken in a net about twenty fathoms long, which in the middle has a sort of bag, called a bmit, formed of fine canvas. A rope attached to one end of the net is left in charge of a man on shore. The boat is then taken out so as to spread the net in a circle and enclose the fish, when the net is drawn up into the boat. A good haul may amount to a couple of bushels, but sometimes three bushels may be taken in a single cast of the net, and it is rare for any other species to be taken with it. The skin in this species is mark?d with one huncb-ed and seventy distinct oblique folds, which ai'e parallel to each other, and extend downward and backward, but there ai-e no scales. The head is one-fifth the total length. The pre-maxillary bones are not capable of being protracted. There is a cartilage at the side of the lower jaw, which, according to Couch, assists the animal to pierce its way into the sand. The palate is without teeth. The back is of a bluish tiuge, but the under side and dorsal and anal fins are silvery white. The Lesser Sand Eel {Amviodytes tohianus) has the pre-maxillary bones protractile, and the skin of the side of the body is marked with a hundred and twenty to a huncU-ed and thirty transverse folds. When frightened these '= "'* little fishes plunge into the soft sand of the sea-bed, working the
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