FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



153 



compressed, deepest close behind the head, and tapering thence evenly to the tail. 

 The very short dorsal fin (6 to 7 rays) stands far forward and its first ray is elongate, 

 halloas long as the fish when not broken off, as it usually is. The ventrals are about 

 midway from the snout to the base of the tail fin, variously pictured as either larger 

 or smaller than the dorsal. The small anal is close to the caudal, with the adipose 

 fin over it. The body is clothed with large but very thin scales. There are several 

 longitudinal rows of small luminous organs on the ventral surface, running from 

 throat to tail, and several more such spots on the side of the head, while a great 

 number of very tiny unpigmented dots are scattered over the trunk. 75 



Color. — Greenish above; sides with metallic gloss; blackish below. 



Size. — One foot long. 



Occurrence in the Gvlf of Maine. — The only definite Gulf of Maine record is of 

 one specimen found in the stomach of a cod caught on Georges Bank in 1874, but 

 as several have been taken off the continental slope abreast of southern New Eng- 

 land 78 in deep water, the viperfish may be expected on the offshore banks as a stray. 



Fig. 62.— Viperfish ( Chauliodus sloanei) 



Habits. — Nothing is known of its habits except that it is an inhabitant of the 

 mid-depths of the Atlantic Basin and probably never rises closer to the surface than 

 150 or 200 fathoms except, perhaps, during its larval stages. Its teeth suggest a 

 rapacious habit but there is no actual record of its diet nor of its breeding. 



55. Cyclothone (Cyclothone signata Garman) 



Garman, 1899, p. 246, pi. J, fig. 3. 



Description. — Cyclothone, like the pearlsides and viperfish (pp. 151 and 152), is 

 distinguishable from other Gulf of Maine fishes by the possession of phos- 

 phorescent organs. These are arranged as follows : One on the head ; 1 close below 

 and in front of the eye; 2 on each gill cover; 9 or 10 between the branchiostegal rays ; 

 2 longitudinal rows on the body, the first containing 13 from throat to ventral fins, 

 4 from ventrals to anal, and 13 from anal to caudal, while the second is a higher 

 row of 7 reaching about as far back as the ventrals. 



The general aspect of the fish is likewise extremely characteristic, the somewbat 

 compressed body being deepest at the gill opening with the upper surface of the head 



'* Die Tietsee-Fische, by August Brauer. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Tiefsee-Eipedition, 1898-1S99 (1906), 

 Band XV, Tei] I, p. 40. 



'• Qoode and Bean (1896, p. 97) list these captures. 



