USES OF THE SILVER HAKE. 243 



not cnred, but is considered worthless. In the mouths of September and October the Whiting is 

 used somewhat for bait for the dogfish aud answers a good purpose." 



It is, as a rule, hardly worth while to criticise statements in a work so generally unreliable ns 

 J. V. 0. Smith's "History of the Fishes of Massachusetts," published in 1843, but, since he lias been 

 quoted byDeKay 1 in a misleading manner, it should here be stated that in discussing tins fish this 

 author had also in mind other fishes belonging to the genus Phycix, which are known by the, name 

 of Hake all along the coast. 



THE MEELUCCIO OR CALIFORNIA HAKE. MERLUCIUS PRODUCTUS. 



The California Hake, writes Professor Jordan, is most commonly known along the coast by its 

 Italian name, " Merluccio", pronounced merlooch. At Soquel and elsewhere it, goes by the name 

 of Horse-mackerel, a name used on our coasts with the greatest carelessness, being applied to Elops 

 saurus, Anoplopoma fimbria, and Merlucius productiis, as well as to various scoinbroids and caran- 

 goid fishes. It reaches a length of about thirty inches and a weight of ten pounds, its average 

 weight being five or six. It is found from the Island of Santa Cruz to Alaska, being very 

 irregular in its appearance, some years very abundant and at other times wanting altogether. 

 It is exceedingly voracious, feeding on all sorts of small fishes and squids. The stomach is always 

 filled almost to bursting. 



It spawns in the spring, and its arrival near the coast always precedes the deposition of the 

 spawn. It probably then retires to deeper water. 



Its value as a food-fish is very little. It is scarcely salable in the market of San Francisco. 

 Its flesh is very soft, and it is always ragged-looking when shipped. Nothing was learned as to the 

 quality of its flesh, but it probably differs little from M. bilinearis. 



73. SEVERAL UNIMPORTANT FAMILIES RELATED TO THE GADIDJE. 



THE CONGROGADUS FAMILY (Gongrogadidoi). This family, which in some respects resembles 

 the eels and in others the Codfishes, contains, in all, three species: oue from Australia, one from 

 the Eed Sea, and the third, a small eel-like fish, of great activity, Scytalincus cerdalis, which lives 

 among the rocks on the coast of Washington Territory. 



THE FIERASFER FAMILY (Fierasferidce) . These are never of very large size, and are eel- 

 like in shape. As far as is known, they live parasitically in the cavities of other marine animals, 

 especially in the respiratory cavities of star-fish and sea-slugs. Not unfrequently they attempt to 

 live in animals less suited to their habits, as, for instance, bivalves, and cases have been known 

 where they have been imprisoned below the mouth of the mollusk or covered over with a layer of 

 the pearly substance secreted by it. They are perfectly harmless to their host, and merely seek 

 for themselves a safe habitation, feeding on the animalcules which enter with the water the cavi- 

 ties inhabited by them. 2 Three or four species of this family are known to occur on our Florida 

 and Gulf coasts. 



THE SAND CUSK FAMILY. The family Ophidiidce is represented on the Atlantic coast by a fish 

 so rare as to have no common name, the Ophidium marginatum, which is found burrowing in the sand 

 banks near Beaufort, North Carolina, occasionally at other places, aud on the coasts of our South- 

 ern and Middle States, 3 and by several rare deep-sea forms. On the California coast is a similar 



'New York Fish Fauua, p. 82. 



* GttNTHEK : Study of Fishes, p. 549. 



1 We dug two specimens out of the sand near low- water mark (Great Egg Harbor, April, 1H71), where they 

 burrowed to the depth of a foot or more. When placed upon moist sand, they burrowed into it, tail foremost, with 

 surprising rapidity, disappearing in an instant. The species appears to be rare. VKRRELL: American Naturalist,, 

 v. 399. 



