532 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



The largest free-swimming larva seen by Stiasny was 50 mm. long. Probably 

 the young take to the ground shortly after this stage, for Bowman 15 describes 

 fry of 65 mm., trawled on the bottom, as of adult form in most respects except that 

 the pectorals were proportionately larger. To attain this state entails a growth 

 on the part of the head out of proportion to the rest of the body, enlargement 

 of the mouth, shrinkage of all fins (of the ventrals most of all), alteration of the 

 second and third free dorsal rays into spines (they are soft previously) , and a general 

 flattening of the whole fish. Young of 3 inches taken at Halifax and one of 4^2 

 inches from Campobello (both pictured by Connolly) were at about this same 

 stage in development, but none intermediate between these and fish fully adult in 

 form and upwards of 8 to 10 inches long seem to have been reported from the Gulf. 



Commercial importance. — Goosefish are taken chiefly by otter trawls and 

 line trawls but occasionally on hand lines and in traps and pound nets. Up to 

 the present time no regular commercial use has been made of the goosefish in Amer- 

 ica, but in spite of the hideous appearance of its head (which should, of course, 

 be cut off and thrown away) it is an excellent food fish, white-meated, free of bones, 

 and of pleasant flavor, as Doctor Connolly assures us from personal experience. 

 It is regularly marketed in northern Europe. English and Scotch vessels, for 

 example, landed nearly 3,000,000 pounds from the North Sea in 1904, valued in 

 England at about 1)4, cents per pound, as compared with about 2)4. cents for cod. 



» Fishery Board for Scotland, Scientific Investigations, 1919 (1920), No. II, pp. 1-42, Pis. I-VI, 2 charts. 



