FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



301 



THE HEADFISHES. FAMILY MOLID^ 



Although the headfishcs or sea sunfishes are allied anatomically to the purlers 



and porcupine fishes, with which they agree in the very small gill openings and in the 



fusion of the teeth into a sort of bony beak, they bear no resemblance whatever to 



them in general appearance, apparently consisting of nothing but a "huge head to 



which the fins are attached," as Jordan and Evermann (1896-1900, p. 1752) aptly 



express it. There is no spiny dorsal, the soft dorsal and anal are short and very 



high, and there is no caudal peduncle. The caudal fin, so short that it is apparently 



nothing more than a flap of skin, extends around the rear outline of the trunk. 



Corresponding to their extraordinary conformation the sunfishes have only 16 or 



17 vertebras. 



115. Sunfish {Mola mola Linnaeus) 



Jordan and Evermann, 1S96-1900, p. 1753. 



Description. — In its general appearance the oblong body of an adult sunfish — 

 and adults alone are seen regularly in the Gulf — suggests the head and fore trunk of 



-"'i 



Fig. HO.— Sunfish (Mola mola) 



some enormous fish cut off short, the oblong body being truncate immediately back 

 of the dorsal and anal fins and without caudal peduncle. In front of the fins, how- 

 ever, it tapers toward the snout so that the forward half of the trunk is oval in 

 profile. The fish is less than twice as long as deep, strongly compressed (about one- 

 fourth as thick as deep) , with a ven' small terminal mouth, teeth completely united 

 in each jaw, a very small eye in line with the mouth, and remarkably short gill 

 openings, while the nose overhangs the upper jaw as a kind of rough, mobile wart 

 or pad. The soft dorsal (there is no spiny dorsal) and anal fins stand one over the 

 other close behind the middle of the fish. Both are very much higher than long, 

 triangular, with rounded tips, consisting of 15 to 18 rays, the seventh ray being 



