[SNAKE sb.] One or other of certain fishes (see quots.) having some resemblance to a snake.

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1796.  Stedman, Surinam, II. xviii. 60. The snake-fish takes its name from its resemblance to that reptile: this is a black eel with a white belly.

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1836.  Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, I. 195. The red Bandfish, or Red Snakefish, cepola rubescens.

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1876.  Goode, Fishes of Bermudas, 68. Synodus Lacerta,… Snake-Fish.

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1896.  Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., V. 438. Snake-fishes. The typical genus Ophidium … has the pelvic fins replaced by a pair of barbel-like filaments.

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1899.  Proc. Zool. Soc., Nov., 985. The two Snake-Fishes (Polypterus senegalus) from the River Gambia.

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  attrib.  1884.  Goode, Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim., 548. The Snake-fish family, Synodontidæ.

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