630 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Ortliafforisciis mola Storer, Rep. Ichth. Mass. 170, pi. 3, fig. 1, 1839; 



De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 331, pi. 59, flg. 193, 1842, New York 



Bay; Storek, Hist. Fish. Mass. 226, pi. XXXIV, fig. 2, 1867; Gunther, 



Cat. Fish. Brit. :Mus. YIII, 317, 1870. 

 Oiihauorlscus atialis Ayres, Pi'oc. Cal. Ac. Sci. II, 31, fig. 54, 1854, San 



Francisco. 

 Mola rotunda Cuvier, Tableau Elem. Nat. Hist. 323, 1798, fide Jordan & 



Evermann; Goode & Bean, Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 3, 1879; Jordan & 



(Jilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 865, 1883. 

 Mola mola Jordan & Ea'ermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1753, 1898, 



pi. CCLXVII. fig. 651, 1900; H. M. Smith, Bull. U. S. F. C. 1897, 105, 



1898, Vineyard Sound. 



Tire length of the head is one third of the length of the body 

 which is one and three fifths times the depth of the body; dorsal 

 and anal fins high in front, rapidly decreased backwards; caudal 

 fin low, and with a wavy outline; depth always more than half 

 length, and in the young the vertical diameter exceeding the 

 longitudinal; form varying with age, the body becoming more 

 elongate, the fins comparatively shortened, the eye much smaller, 

 and a hump being developed above the mouth, topped by an 

 osseous tubercle. D. 17; A. 16. 



Dark gray; sides grayish brown, with silvery reflections, belly 

 dusky; a broad blackish bar running along the bases of the dor- 

 sal, caudal, and anal fins. Pelagic, inhabiting most temperate 

 and tropical seas, swimming slowly near the surface, with the 

 high dorsal fin exposed. 



It ranges northward to San Francisco, Cape Ann, and Eng- 

 land, occurring rarely in the West Indies. The Essex Institute 

 has a specimen which was taken in Salem harbor in the summer 

 of 1863. An individual, 4 feet long, was caught ofl" Gloucester 

 Mass. July 31, 1860. Dr Smith reports it rarer now than formerly 

 in the vicinity of Woods Hole, Mass. It was not unusual to 

 observe eight or 10 specimens annually in Vineyard Sound, but 

 of late not more than one in a season is seen. In 1896 a 400 

 pound fish was seen off Tarpaulin CoA'e. A 200 pound specimen, 

 caught off Great Harbor, was kept alive at the station for about 

 a week in 1887. The sunfish are usually found there in August. 

 Mr Y. N. Edwards has opened a number of stomachs and found 

 in them only ctenophores and medusae. The largest individual 



