158 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



Food: Bottom feeding, fishes and Crustacea. 

 Size: One to two pounds. 



185. Urophycis chuss (Walbaum). Hake, Red Hake. 



Geog. Dist.: Atlantic coast, Gulf of St. Lawrence to Virginia. Common 

 northward, reaching a depth of 300 fathoms. 



Season in R. I.: Comes in numbers about May first and is very common 

 through May and June, but absent through the summer. Comes in 

 again about October first and is abundant until December. Prob- 

 ably present throughout the winter. Reported from Rhode Island by 

 Rafinesque (1818); from Point Judith, by Mitchill (1878). 



Habitat: Bottom fish. 



Reproduction: "It is believed that they sj^awn throughout the summer 

 for the young are found thi-ough all the summer months. Specimens 

 taken at a depth of 37 fathoms in a temperature of 41° F., contained 

 well developed ova and were apparently ready to spawn. The 

 young are frequently taken swimming on the surface on the southern 

 coast of New England in the summer and numerous individuals have 

 been found off Block Island and Watch Hill, seeking shelter between 

 the valves of a large species of scallop (Pecten tenmcostatas) at a depth 

 of 20 to 40 fathoms" (Goode and Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, 1895, 

 359). 



Observations at Wickford, however, lead the present writer to believe that 

 this species is a winter spawner like other fishes of the cod family. 

 The specimens from two to six inches long in June and July correspond 

 in a general way with the length of cod and haddock at that time and 

 indicate that the height of the spawning season is some months past. 

 Of the very small specimens of the rearing cars of the lobster plant, 

 the writer has never .seen but three, although he has watched for them 

 particularly for two or tliree summers. Probably, as occurs in other 

 species, these small specimens were hatched from eggs spawned ex- 

 ceptionally late. If this species spawned in great numbers in summer 

 in Narragansett Bay many young would appear in the lobster cars, as 

 in the case of the other summer spawning species. 



Food: Crustacea and small fry. A specimen three inches (73 mm.) 

 taken in Wickford Cove June, 1908, had a stomach full of shrimp. 



Rate of Growth: Young specimens from 2.5 to 6 inches long are com- 

 mon in eelgrass along the shores during June and July. Young prob- 

 ably of this species are occasionally taken in the lobster rearing cars 



