FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 87 



Size. — The female conger grows to an enormous size, certainly to a length of 

 4}4 to 8 feet, the heaviest creditably reported" weighing 128 pounds (58 kilos). 

 In European seas 50 to 60 pounders are not imusual, and 25 to 30 pounders are usual, 

 but few of this size are caught off New England. Males are very much smaller, 

 perhaps never more than 2J4 feet long. Congers taken near Block Island range 

 from 4 to 6 feet in length; the larger ones taken at Woods Hole usually weigh 8 to 

 12 pounds. 



Color. — Grayish-brown above, sometimes of a reddish tinge, sometimes so dark 

 as to be almost black; paler on the sides; dingy white below. 



General range. — The conger is cosmopolitan in the warmer parts of the Atlantic 

 where it is known as far north as Scandinavia on the eastern side and Cape Cod on 

 the western side. It also occiu-s in the western Pacific and Indian oceans. 



Occurrence in the Oulf of Maine. — Tlie Gulf of Maine lies north of the regular 

 range of the conger, which is extremely rare there. The curious bandlike "lep- 

 tocephalus" larva of the conger has been taken at Cherrjrfield and at Old Orchard 

 in Maine, and at Nahant in Massachusetts Bay — a total, however, of only six 

 specimens, all of which were collected more than a half century ago — and A. H. 

 Clark, of the United States National Museum, informs us that he found large numbers 

 of leptocephalus larvte, perhaps belonging to the conger, on the beach at Man- 

 chester, Mass., in the summer of 1898 or 1899. The only other positive record for 

 this species in the GuK of Maine is for North Truro on Cape Cod — whether adult or 

 larva was not stated — nor have we ourselves ever seen or heard of an adult conger 

 north of the cape. It is more plentiful west and south of Cape Cod, being taken 

 at Woods Hole from July into the autmnn, and common about Block Island from 

 August until November.'* 



Habits. — Although the conger is rare in the Gulf of Maine its breeding habits are 

 sufficiently remarkable to deserve brief mention. It is now well established that 

 this species, like the common eel, breeds but once during its life and then perishes. 

 Ripe congers are never caught on hook and line, for they cease to feed — hence to 

 bite — for some time previous, but males kept in aquaria have repeatedly been known 

 to become fully ripe, females nearly so," and then invariably dying, the ripening of 

 the sexual products being accompanied by changes in the shape of the head, loss of 

 the teeth, and a jollification of the bones, while the eyes of the males become enor- 

 mous and the females are much distended by the ovaries. It is probable that the 

 conger ripens off the coast of New England in summer; in captivity they have 

 been kno^\^l to do so every month in the year except October and November. 



The conger, like the common eel, moves out from the coast to spawn, for its 

 young larvae have never been taken inshore, but if the eggs described below actually 

 belonged to this species, as is generally accepted, then the New England stock 

 travels out only to the edge of the continental shelf for the pm-pose and does not 

 fare forth to far distant parts of the Atlantic Basin as does the common eel. 



'' Day: The Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland, Text and Atlas, 1880. London and Edinborough. 



" Local reports of congers do not necessarily relate to the true conger, for the eel pout (p. 378), which is fairly common in the 

 Gulf, is often misnamed thus. 



" Cunningham (Journal, Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Vol. U, new series, 1891-92, pp. 16-42) gives 

 an interesting account of this and other phases of the life history of the conger. 



