. Fishes. Fishes. 728 TheBlennies: Blenniids In the wolf-eel {Anarrhichthys ocellatus) of the coast of Cali- fornia, the head is formed as in Anarhichas but the body is band-shaped, being drawn out into a very long and tapering tail. This species, which is often supposed to be a " sea-serpent," sometimes reaches a length of eight feet. It is used for food. It feeds on sea-urchins and sand-dollars {Echinarachinius) which it readily crushes with its tremendous teeth. The skull of a fossil genus, Lapanis (alticeps), with a resem- blance to Anarhichas, is recorded from the Eocene of Engl
. Fishes. Fishes. 728 TheBlennies: Blenniids In the wolf-eel {Anarrhichthys ocellatus) of the coast of Cali- fornia, the head is formed as in Anarhichas but the body is band-shaped, being drawn out into a very long and tapering tail. This species, which is often supposed to be a " sea-serpent," sometimes reaches a length of eight feet. It is used for food. It feeds on sea-urchins and sand-dollars {Echinarachinius) which it readily crushes with its tremendous teeth. The skull of a fossil genus, Lapanis (alticeps), with a resem- blance to Anarhichas, is recorded from the Eocene of England. The Eel-pouts: Zoarcidae.—The remaining blenny-like forms lack fin spines, agreeing in this respect with the codfishes and their allies. In all of the latter, however, the hypercoracoid is imperforate, the pseudobranchiae are obsolete, and the tail isocercal. The forms allied to Zoarces and Ophidian, and which we may regard as degraded blennies, have homocercal (rarely leptocercal) tails, generally but not always well-developed pseu- dobranchiae and the usual foramen in the hypercoracoid. The ZoarcidcE, or eel-pouts, have the body elongate, naked, or covered with small scales, the dorsal and anal of many soft rays and the gill-openings confined to the side. Most of the species live in rather deep water in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Zoarces viviparus, the "mother of eels," is a common fish of the coasts of northern Europe. In the genus Zoarces,. Fig. 636.—Eel-pout, Zoarces anguillaris Peck. Eastport, Me. the last rays of the dorsal are short and stiff, like spines. The species are viviparous; the young being eel-like in form, the name "mother of eels " has naturally arisen in popular language. The American eel-pout, sometimes called mutton-fish, Zoarces anguillaris, is rather common north of Cape Cod, and a similar species, Zoarces elongatus, is found in northern Japan. Lycodopsis pacifica, without spines in the dorsal, replaces Zoarces in Cal
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