222 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Figure 104. — White hake (Urophycis tenuis), Halifax, Nova Scotia. From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



than the latter, triangular, with the third ray 

 prolonged as a filament that is longer than 

 the fin proper is high. The second dorsal 

 fin (about 54 to 57 rays) runs the whole length 

 of the trunk from close behind the first dorsal 

 fin to the caudal peduncle, is of about equal 

 height from end to end, with rounded corners, 

 and is only about half as high as the first dorsal. 

 The anal fin is similar in outline to the second 

 dorsal but is shorter (about 48 to 50 rays). The 

 pectorals are rounded when spread; the ventral 

 fins are situated considerably in front of the 

 pectorals, and each is reduced to two very much 

 prolonged rays (apparently a single branched 

 ray), with the lower (longer) ray of the two 

 falling slightly short of the vent. 



The length of the ventral fins has often been 

 given as an alternative character separating the 

 white hake from the squirrel hake (p. 223), in 

 which the ventrals are usually described as 

 reaching beyond the vent. This distinction is 

 not to be relied on, however, for we have seen 

 squirrel hakes in which the ventrals lacked 

 something of reaching the vent. 



The scales on both head and body are. smaller 

 than those of the closely allied squirrel hake, and 

 their number is the most reliable distinction be- 

 tween the two species, there being about 140 

 oblique rows of scales along the lateral line between 

 gill opening and base of tail fin in the white hake, 

 but seldom, if ever, more than 110 rows of scales 

 in the squirrel hake. 



Another difference, which seems equally depend- 

 able, though it is less obvious, is that the upper jaw 

 (maxillary) bone reaches as far back as the rear 

 edge of the eye in the white hake, but only as far 

 as the rear edge of the pupil in the squirrel hake. 



Color. — Like most bottom fish, white hake vary 

 in color. As a rule they are muddy or purple 

 brown above, sometimes almost slaty (we saw one 



of this shade caught in Northeast Harbor, Maine) , 

 the sides sometimes bronzed, and the belly dirty 

 white or yellowish white peppered with tiny black 

 dots. The dorsal fins are of the same color 

 as the back, the anal fin the same as the belly, 

 and both the dorsals and the anal are edged with 

 black. The ventral fins are pale, like the belly, 

 but usually they are more tinged with yellow. 



Figure 105. — Side view of heads of white hake, A, and 

 of squirrel hake, B, to show the difference between the 

 two in length of the upper jaw bone. 



Size. — The maximum length is about 4 feet, 

 the maximum weight about 40 pounds. But most 



