I30 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Oct. and Nov. 



Upon a recent visit to Cape Breton, I observed vast num- 

 bers of American Hake {Phycis chiiss, Walbaum) 3 in. to 4 in. in 

 lentrth. hoveringf around the wharves at the various harbours 

 which were inckided in my tour. Like most species of the genus 

 Phycis the American Hake retains when adult extremely elon- 

 gated ventral fins, which, as already stated, are characteristic of 

 the young or the advanced larval condition of many of the 

 family Gadida;. These long fins of the hake are of an opaque 

 white colour and they are used in a most unexpected and in- 

 teresting way. The little fish were observed by me foraging 

 about the weed-covered piles, moving over sunken logs, and all 

 the time nibbling zoophytes and other food upoii the stones at 

 the bottom. Thousands of them could be observed, each stretch- 

 ing forward a large pair of white hands, so to speak, with long 

 fingers probing amongst moss and weeds. These, which 1 have 

 described as white hands, with slender fingers, were nothing 

 more nor less than the huge hind ])air of fins ^ of an inch m 

 length (in fishes about 3 inches long), and instead of being 

 allowed to hang downward or backward as is usual in fishes, 

 these ventral fins were turned so far forward as to extend along 

 each side of the head. They exactly resembled a pair of chalk- 

 white hands. It was an odd sight to see schools of these dark 

 coloured infant fishes feeling about amongst the weeds, and 

 actually creeping up stumps and piles under water, by means of 

 these actively moving limbs. M. H. Parley in his account of the 

 fishes of New Brunswick says of the hake : " It has one barbule 

 under the chin ; the ventral fins are simple rays, divided or 

 forked, one of the divisions longer than the other," The rays or 

 rods, forming each fin, are three in number, and united by a fin- 

 membrame for a short distance, beyond which the ra}'s are 

 separate and free, like attenuated fingers, capable of considerable 

 varied movements, These fins appear indeed to have wholly 

 changed their original purpose and in the young stages of the 

 hake are no doubt sensory organs, and used like fingers in feel- 

 ing for food. A minute histological study of these fins would 

 no doubt show that the sensory nerve supply is unusually largely 



