SAND-EEL or Sand-Launce. The fishes known under these names form a small isolated group (Ammodytina), distantly related to the cod-fishes. Their body is of an elongate-cylindrical shape, with the head terminating in a long conical snout, the projecting lower jaw forming the pointed end. A low long dorsal fin, in which no distinction between spines and rays can be observed, occupies nearly the whole length of the back, and a long anal, composed of similar short and delicate rays, commences immediately behind the vent, which is placed about midway between the head and caudal fin. The caudal is forked and the pectorals are short. The total absence of ventral fins indicates the burrowing habits of these fishes. The scales, when present, are very small; but generally the development of scales has only proceeded to the formation of oblique folds of the integuments. The eyes are lateral and of moderate size; the dentition is quite rudimentary....
Sand-eels are small littoral marine fishes, only one species attaining a length of 18 inches (Ammodytes lanceolate). They live in shoals at various depths on a sandy bottom, and bury themselves in the sand on the slightest alarm. They are able to do this with the greatest ease and rapidity whilst the bottom is covered with water. Many of those which live close inshore are left by the receding tide buried in the sand, and are then frequently dug out from a depth of one or two feet. Other shoals live in deeper water; when they are surprised by fish of prey or porpoises, they are frequently driven to the surface in such dense masses that numbers of them can be scooped out of the water with a bucket or hand-net. In fact, this used to be, in the Channel Islands, the common practice of the fishermen to provide themselves with bait. Some species descend to a depth of 100 fathoms and more; and the greater sand-eel is not rarely taken on the mackerel line far out at sea near the surface. Sand-eels are very rapacious, destroying a great quantity of fry and other small creatures, such as the lancelet (Branchiostoma), which lives in similar localities. They are excellent eating, and are much sought after for bait.
Sand-eels are common in all suitable localities of the North Atlantic; a species scarcely distinct from the European common sand-launce occurs on the Pacific side of North America, another on the east coast of South Africa. On the British coasts three species are found :—the Greater Sand-Eel (Ammodytes lanceolate), distinguished by a tooth-like bicuspid prominence on the vomer; the Common Sand-Launce (A. tobiamis), from five to seven inches long, with unarmed vomer, even dorsal fin, and with the integuments folded; and the Southern Sand-Launce (A. siculus), with unarmed vomer, smooth skin, and with the margins of the dorsal and anal fins undulated. The last species is common in the Mediterranean, but local farther northwards. It has been found near the Shetlands at depths from 80 to 100 fathoms, and is generally distinguished from the common species by the fishermen of the Channel Islands, who have a tradition that it appeared suddenly on their coasts some fifty years ago.
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