species are voracious and predatory, and feed on almost any animal food
they can obtain, living or dead. The conger is especially fond of squid
or other Cephalopods, while the eel greedily devours carrion. The common
eel occurs in all the rivers and fresh waters of Europe, except those
draining towards the Arctic Ocean, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. It
also occurs on the Atlantic side of North America. The conger has a
wider range, extending from the western and southern shores of Britain
and Ireland to the East Indian Archipelago and Japan. It is common in
the Mediterranean.

The ovaries of the eel resemble somewhat those of the salmon in
structure, not forming closed sacs, as in the majority of Teleostei, but
consisting of laminae exposed to the body cavity. The laminae in which
the eggs are produced are very numerous, and are attached transversely
by their inner edges to a membranous band running nearly the whole
length of the body-cavity. The majority of the eels captured for market
are females with the ovaries in an immature condition. The male eel was
first discovered in 1873 by Syrski at Trieste, the testis being
described by him as a lobed elongated organ, in the same relative
position as the ovary in the female, surrounded by a smooth surface
without laminae. He did not find ripe spermatozoa. He discovered the
male by examining small specimens, all the larger being female. L.
Jacoby, a later observer, found no males exceeding 19 in. in length,
while the female may reach a length of 39 in. or more. Dr C. G. J.
Petersen, in a paper published in 1896, states that in Denmark two kinds
of eels are distinguished by the fishermen, namely, yellow eels and
silver eels. The silver eels are further distinguished by the shape of
the snout and the size of the eyes. The snout in front of the eyes is
not flat, as in the yellow eels, but high and compressed, and therefore
appears more pointed, while the eyes are much larger and directed
outwards. In both kinds there are males and females, but Petersen shows
that the yellow eels change into silver eels when they migrate to the
sea. The sexual organs in the silver eels are more developed than in the
yellow eels, and the former have almost or entirely ceased to take food.
The male silver eels are from 11-1/2 to 19 in. in length, the females
from 16-1/2 to about 39 in. It is evident, therefore, that if eels only
spawn once, they do not all reach the same size when they become