REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 143 



MOLID^. The Head-Fishes. 



Mola mola (Linneeus). Sunfish. 



Geog. Dist.: Tropical seas, north to San Francisco, Portland, Maine, 

 and England. Taken off Portland, Maine (U. S. Nat. Mus., 1875), 

 from many places along the Massachusetts shore (Kendall, 1908), 

 from Connecticut, at Stonington (Linsley, 1844), and Noank (Goode, 

 1879). Specimen recorded from New York Bay by Mitchill (1815) 

 and De Kay (1842). 



Habitat: Surface of the open water. 



Season in R. I.: Occasionally taken at Block Island in late summer. 



Reproduction: "The eggs of Mola are very probably pelagic, the larvse 

 having the same habit." (Ryder, Report U. S. Fish Com., XII, 1884, 

 1027; Ryder, On the Development of the Mola, Science, IV, 1884, 93.) 



Food: Fishes, Crustacea, ctenophores, jelly-fishes. 



Size: Largest on record was taken at California: eight feet, two inches; 

 weighing 1,800 pounds. Young, two inches long, described by Put- 

 nam (Amer. Nat. IV, 1874, 629). See also Ehrenbaum, Nordisches 

 Plankton, 10, 1909, 314. 



SCORP^NID^. The Rock-Fishes. 



Helicolenus daetylopterus (De la Roche) . 

 Geog. Dist.: Narragansett Bay and Chesapeake Bay. Common in deep 



water in the Mediterranean. 

 Habitat: On rocky bottoms at considerable depths (100 to 250 fathoms). 

 Season in R. I.: First discovered in America in 1880 off Narragansett 



Bay, by the "Fish Hawk." (Goode and Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, 



1896, 249.) 

 Reproduction: In the Mediterranean, females full of eggs have been 



observed in the summer (Risso, quoted by Bean, 1903). 

 Size: Almost a foot in length. The "Challenger" secured two specimens 



5 and 9 mm. long, April 26, 1876, off St. Vincent, Cape De Verde 



Islands. 



COTTID^. The Seulpins. 

 Myoxoeephalus aeneus (Mitchill). Little Sculpin; Grubby. 

 Geog. Dist.: Bay of Fundy to New Jersey. Common on coast of 



southern New England and New York. 

 Season in R. I.: Common throughout the year. Specimen three inches 

 long taken in seine at Willow Beach near Wickford, July 17, 1905. 



