286 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHEKIES 



Commercial importance. — The cunner was once a favorite pan fish, and in the 

 late seventies of the past century the annual catch of the small boats fishing out 

 of Boston was estimated as not much short of 300,000 pounds," while the fact 

 that 104,100 pounds of cunners were returned for Maine in 1889, 148,300 pounds 

 in 1898, and 281,500 pounds in 1905, shows that the annual harvest was still con- 

 siderable at that time. They seem to have gone so wholly out of fashion since 

 then, however, that very few were marketed in 1907, and these few were sold mostly 

 to the poorer people, while in 1919 the reported catch was only 30,695 poimds for 

 Maine and about 10,000 for the whole shore line of Massachusetts, south as well as 

 north of Cape Cod. 



Although not a "game" fish, the humble cunner affords amusement to thou- 

 sands of vacationists near our large cities and seaside resorts; and the number 

 thus caught, of which no record is kept, is so considerable that it must be classed as 

 a very useful little fish from the recreational standpoint. 



107. Tautog {Tautoga onitis Linnaeus) 

 Blackfish 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 596. 



Description. — The tautog suggests an overgrown cunner, but it is a heavier, 

 stouter fish (about three times as long as deep, counting caudal) with caudal peduncle 

 so broad and caudal fin so little wider than the pedimcle that it is hard to hold a 

 heavy one by the tail. The most obvious differences between the two fish are that 

 the dorsal profile of the head of the tautog is high arched, its nose is very blunt, its 

 lips are much thicker, its eye is high, and its mouth is low, giving it a facial aspect 

 quite different from that of a cunner. A more precise if less obvious character is that 

 the cheek region close in front of the gill opening, scaly in the cunner, is naked 

 and velvety to the touch in the tautog. In relative size and location its fins prac- 

 tically reproduce those of the cunner. The dorsal fin (16 to 17 spines and 10 rays) 

 originates over the upper corner of the gill opening and runs back the whole length 

 of the trunk. The anal (3 stout spines and 10 rays) corresponds in outline to the 

 soft portion of the dorsal, under which it stands. The caudal fin is slightly roimded 

 at the corners, the pectorals are large and rounded, and the ventrals have one stout 

 spine. The soft part of the dorsal fin is considerably higher than the spiny part 

 in the tautog, while it is only slightly so in the cunner. The jaw teeth of the tautog 

 (in two series) are stout, conical, with the two or three in the front of each jaw 

 larger than others. The tautog has, besides, two groups of flat, rounded, crushing 

 teeth in the rear part of the mouth which the cunner also has. 



Color. — The tautog is a very dark fish, generally mouse color, chocolate gray, 

 deep dusky green, or blackish, with the sides irregularly mottled or blotched with 

 darker. These mottlings are more evident in the young than in adults and usually 

 occur as three pairs of more or less continuous bars. Large fish are often almost 

 plain. The belly is but slightly paler than the sides. Tautogs, like cunners, vary 

 greatly in color on different bottoms, and also in their markings. 



*" Unfortunately published statistics throw little light on the actual catch of cunners, for not only are many consumed 

 locally, but the fishery is such that only a fraction of the catch is reported. 



