288 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



second anal, and is coterminal with it ; its first and second rays are short, the third and fourth 

 rays longest, the remainder gradually shorter. Pectorals fan-shaped, and reaching to a line 

 with the vent. Ventrals small, distant. The first anal fin long, and high anteriorly ; the 

 fourth and fifth rays longest, thence gradually diminishing in size. The second anal, in shape 

 and size, resembles the third dorsal. Caudal forked, with numerous accessory rays. 



Color. Dark blackish green above ; abdomen and base of anal fins whitish, minutely punc- 

 tate with brown. Chin and sides of the opercles bronzed. Lateral line silvery white. Pupils 

 bluish black; irides silvery, mottled with brown. Tongue silvery, margined with dusky. All 

 the fins, except the ventrals, dark brownish black ; the pectorals being somewhat lighter. 

 Ventrals white. 



Length, 13-0. Depth, 3-0. Length of the head, 3-0. 

 Fin rays, D. 13.19.19; P. 18; V. 6 ; A. 24.19; C. 22 }. 



The Coal-fish is often taken off the harbor of New-York, in company with the Cod and the 

 preceding species. I have received the names for it of Pollack and Black Pollack, from our 

 fishermen. It is not a common species, and is usually confounded with the preceding. In 

 the pollack, the vent is under the middle of the first dorsal ; in this species, it is under the 

 posterior third of the same fin. 



This is one of the comparatively few oceanic fishes which range on both shores of the 

 Atlantic. It is a northern fish ; and on this side of the Atlantic, the coast of New-York must 

 be assigned as the extreme southern limits of its geographic range. 



THE GREEN POLLACK. 



MERL4NGUS leptocephalus. 

 PLATE XLV. FIG. 146. — (STATE COLLECTION.) 



Characteristics. Deep green above the lateral line. Lower jaw shortest. Length twelve to 

 eighteen inches. 



Description. Head small ; facial line sloping from the dorsal fin, and slightly arched. Body 

 compressed, subcylindric. Scales not adherent, small, oblong on the head, orbicular on the 

 body. Lateral line tubular, curved, nearly concurrent with the dorsal outline. Eyes large. 

 Nostrils double, tubular, nearly equidistant between the eyes and the end of the snout. The 

 upper jaw receives the under jaw within it, although, when extended, the latter appears some- 

 what the longest. Card-like teeth on both jaws and on the palatines, and recurved teeth on 

 the upper and lower pharyngeals. 



The first dorsal fin pointed, subtriangular, commencing vertical to a point equidistant between 

 the vent and the tip of the ventrals, and terminating above the origin of the first anal ; second 

 dorsal as high as the preceding, and slopes backward nearly to the level of the back ; the third 

 dorsal begins and ends on the same line with the second anal, with which it agrees in size and 



