458 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OP FISHERIES 



United States. The most northerly record is off Nantucket (lat. 40° 1* N., long. 

 69° 56' W.) in 79 fathoms, and it is on the strength of this that the species is men- 

 tioned here. 



Habits. — Nothing is known of the habits of the hakeling except that it is a 

 deep-water fish, having been taken from 79 down to 955 fathoms, where, to judge 

 from its general structure, it lives on or near bottom. 280 



160. Four-bearded rockling (Enchelyopus cimbrius Linnaeus) 



Rockling 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2560. 



Description. — The rocklings, of which this is the only common local representa- 

 tive, differ from their near relatives, the hakes (Urophycis) , in the facts that the ven- 

 trals are short, with 5 to 7 rays, and that the first section of the dorsal fin con- 

 sists of only one ray, which is nearly as long as the head and stands over 

 the upper corner of the gill opening, followed by a series of about 50 very 

 short, separate, hairlike rays without connecting membrane, which are depres- 

 sible in a groove on the back. Thus there is only one well-developed dorsal fin. 

 Rocklings differ further from all other gadoids in the presence of long barbels on the 

 top of the nose as well as on the chin, the number of these being the most obvious 

 specific character among the several species. In the present species there are a pair 

 of these barbels close in front of the nostrils, a third and somewhat shorter barbel 

 standing alone at the tip of the snout, and a fourth hanging from the chin. 



Rocklings suggest young hake in their slender form, which tapers back from 

 the shoulders, and, hakelike, they are rounded in front of the vent and compressed 

 behind it. The upper jaw is longer than the lower and the teeth are small, but 

 their noses are shorter and blunter, their eyes smaller, and the dorsal profile of their 

 heads is more rounded than in any of the hakes. The pectorals are rounded, the 

 narrow pointed ventrals being situated well in front of the latter. The second 

 dorsal (45 to 53 rays) originates over the mid-length of the pectoral, runs back 

 nearly to the base of the caudal, and is about equally high from end to end with 

 rounded rear corner. The anal is simdar to the second dorsal in form, though it is 

 shorter (39 to 43 rays 27 ) . The caudal is oval when spread. 



Color. — By all accounts, corroborated by our own experience, the color of this 

 rockling is comparatively constant. Its back is dark yellowish olive or dusky 

 brown, its sides paler, and its belly white dotted with brown. Sometimes the sides 

 behind the vent are more or less clouded with a darker shade of the general body 

 hue. The first dorsal ray, the posterior margins of the second dorsal and the anal, 

 the lower half of the caudal, and the whole of the pectorals are sooty or bluish 

 black. Otherwise the vertical fins are grayish or bluish brown. The ventrals are 

 pale and the fining of the mouth dark purplish or bluish. 



*>° Another small hakelike fish (Lotetta maiillaris) has been taken in 396 fathoms off Marthas Vineyard. It is separable from 

 the hakeling described above by the fact that its anal fin originates behind the origin of the second dorsal, and by its larger teeth. 

 17 Storer credits it with 48 rays, but subsequent students have not found so many. 



