FAMILY GADIDJE. 283 



GENUS LOTA. Cuvier. 



Dorsal fins tiuo. A single anal fin. Body much elongated. One or more barbels on the 

 chin. Inhabiting fresh and salt water. 



THE PLAIN BURBOT. 



Lota inornata. 

 PLATE XLV. FIG. 145. — (CABINET OF THE ALBANY INSTITUTE.) 



Characteristics. Ventrals with filamentous tips ; the first ray partly free. First and second 

 dorsals subequal in height. Length one to two feet. 



Description. Body cylindrical, tapering and compressed towards the tail. Scales small, 

 rounded, deeply imbedded in the skin, and extending over the head and opercles. Lateral 

 line runs nearly parallel with the dorsal outline, from which it is distant about an inch, and 

 covered with minute scales. Head broad, depressed. Eyes lateral, placed near the summit 

 of the head, two and a half diameters from the end of the snout, and six diameters from the 

 margin of the opercle. Nostrils double ; the first oval, the anterior, a single diameter of the 

 orbit distant from the eye, with a short tube terminating on its external edge in an acute tip. 

 Abdomen prominent, rotund. Lower jaw shorter than the upper, and furnished with a single 

 barbel three-quarters of an inch long. Intermaxillary with a broad belt of equal incurved 

 teeth ; a similar belt on the vomer, palatines and pharyngeals. Tongue broad and smooth. 



The first dorsal short, rhomboidal, commencing at a point distant from the eyes equal to 

 the length of the anal fin ; of the same height with the second, which is long, low and sub- 

 equal throughout its whole extent. It commences half an inch behind the first, and in length 

 is nearly equal to the space between the first ray of the anal and the commissure of the jaws ; 

 its rays are enveloped in a thick and tough membrane, in common with those of all the other 

 fins. The pectorals rounded, and placed two inches and a half behind the eyes. Ventrals 

 acute, placed very far forward ; the second ray longest and filamentous, the first ray free 

 for nearly half an inch. Anal fin subequal, terminating at a point under the sixty-sixth ray 

 of the second dorsal, and commencing opposite the tenth ray. Anal quite rounded, and en- 

 tirely surrounding the obtusely pointed tail ; its rays beneath are three-quarters of an inch 

 from the termination of the anal, and above at a less distance from the termination of the 

 dorsal. 



Color. Of this I am unable to state any thing, as it was preserved in spirits ; it appeared 

 to resemble that of the common cod, with a general reddish brown hue, pale bluish beneath. 

 The dorsal appeared to have been margined with dusky. No appearance of spots or stripes 

 whatsoever. The place of the right eye was entirely concealed by the common teguments ; 

 this, I presume must have been accidental. 



