AMMODYTES, o genus of fishes belonging to the division of Apodal Malaeopterygii and family A nyuillidm. The body is very long, and the head lanceolate. On the back is a dorsal fin extending nearly its whole length. The anal fin is also long ; and the caudal, which is forked, is separated from both the dorsal and anal. Two species occur on the coasts of the British Islands, the A mmodytes tobianut and the Ammodyiet lances. The former is the larger, and is distin guished by the greater size of the head, and by the dorsal fin, which commences in a line with the extremities of the pectorals, whilst in the A. lancea it commences iu a line with the middle of the pectorals. The Sand-Eel, by which name the first species is popularly known, attains a length of between 12 and 15 inches. When alive the back is of a dark bluish-green, and the aides and belly bright silvery-white. It frequents sandy shores in great numbers, but is capricious in its visits, more so than its congener. At the ebbing of the tide it buries itself with great dexterity and rapidity in the wet sands to the depth of from 4 to 6 inches, whence it is extracted by means of various instruments, such as peculiarly formed gripes and sickles with blunt edges, made for the purpose. It is much esteemed by fishermen as a
bait, and is also sought after on many parts of the coast as an article of food, being very delicate eating when fresh, and excellent when dried in the sun and grilled.
The Sand-Launee, A mmodytea lancea, is a smaller species, and usually of a more brownish hue, with a tinge of red about the head. It is more abundant than the Sand-Eel, and has always been distinguished from it by the fishermen, though for a long time confounded with it by naturalists. The distinctions between the two species were first pointed out by M. Lesauvage of Caen. Both appear to be generally distributed through Northern and Western Europe. In Scotland the Sand-Eel is known by the name of the Horner, and in the Isle of Man the two species aro distinguished from each other as the Gray Gibbon and Rod Gibbon.
(Yarrell, Prigah Fialice, vet ii.; Parnell, Filches of the Frith of Forth.)