FAMILY GADIDJS MORRHUA. 279 



have known them to be taken out of the water along the shores of Long Island, in great num- 

 bers, with a common garden hoe. They ascend rivers even into fresh water. Dr. Eights 

 informs me that they appear at Albany in abundance, at intervals of six and eight years. 



The specific name (tomcodus) proposed by my estimable and amiable friend, the late Dr. 

 Mitchill, has been frequently made the subject of animadversion. Although not unobjec- 

 tionable, it ranks with cattus, rattus, sprat tus, kangurus, terrapene, johnnius, lumpus, and 

 a host of others which have been adopted without comment. It gives me pleasure, however, 

 to be enabled to satisfy the tastes of the most fastidious, by restoring the original name of the 

 first describer. The name luscus of Peck, in Belknap's History of New-Hampshire (Vol. 3, 

 p. 130), I can only conjecture to have been intended for this species. 



The range of this species appears to be from the coast of New-York northwardly. 



THE HADDOCK. 



MORRHUA iEGLEFINUS. 



PLATE XLIII. FIG. 138. — (STATE COLLECTION.) 



Gadus aglefirms. Linnecs, Syst. Nat. 12 ed. p. 435. 



G. id. Mitchill, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Vol. 1, p. 370. 



Morrhua aglefinus. CcVILR, R. A. 



M. id. Storer, Massachusetts Report, p. 124. 



Characteristics. Lateral line jet black, occasionally interrupted. Caudal emarginate ; first 

 dorsal elevated. Length one to two feet. 



Description. Body robust, large in front, tapering behind. Length of the head to the total 

 length as one to four. Height of the body at the pectorals, one inch less than the length of 

 the head. Scales small, elliptical, feebly radiate, striate. Lateral line high up, and irregu- 

 larly concurrent with the dorsal outline ; it is not unfrequently interrupted with occasional 

 branches or offsets from the ordinary course. Head large, slightly carinated on the nape ; 

 broad, and slightly convex between the eyes. Snout conical, prominent. Eyes large, and 

 placed high up near the facial outline. Nostrils double, longitudinally oval, contiguous ; the 

 upper slightly anterior, somewhat smaller, and with a valvular membrane. Lips thick and 

 fleshy. The lower jaw shortest, with a single row of short minute teeth ; the upper jaw with 

 a band of very short minute teeth. A single, short and very small barbel under the chin. 



The first dorsal triangular, the third ray longest ; higher than long, and higher than the 

 other dorsal fins ; its origin over the base of the pectorals. The second dorsal longest, arising 

 slightly anterior to a point vertical to the vent ; the third triangular, and almost continuous 

 with the second. Pectorals large ; the tips extending to a point below the third ray of the 

 . second dorsal. The first anal longest ; the second arises under the third ray of the last dor- 

 sal. Caudal fin with its margin concave. 



Color. Above the lateral line, blackish brown ; below silvery grey ; the line itself jet black. 

 One or more large, dark, vertically oblong blotches across the lateral line. Pupils black ; 



