528 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



In Scottish waters, where the habits of this species are better known than in the 

 Gulf of Maine, its local abundance depends on the supply of small fish, and in spite 

 of their poor abihty as swimmers goosefish have been found to congregate near par- 

 ticular shoals of herring. W. F. Clapp, who has often watched the feeding habits 

 of goosefish at low tide in Diixbury Bay, Mass., where they are very plentiful, 

 describes them to us as lying perfectly motionless among the eelgrass with the tag 

 or "bait" on the tip of the first dorsal ray swaying to and fro over the mouth, 

 either with the current or by some voluntary motion so slight as to be invisible. 

 The only fish he has seen them take are tomcod, and when one of these chances 

 to approach it usually swims close up to the "bait" but never (in his observation) 

 actually touches it, for as soon as the victim is within a few inches the goosefish 

 simply opens its vast mouth and closes it again, engulfing its victim instantaneously. 

 These observations are the more welcome as no other recent student seems to have 

 seen the feeding habits of this species in its natural siu-roundings, and they show 

 that it depends mostly on such fish or Crustacea as chance to stray close enough 

 to be snapped up from ambush or seized by a sudden rush. However, the fact 

 that it has been known to seize and swallow hooked fish as the latter were 

 being hauled up, and even to capture sea birds sitting on the surface, proves that 

 it may make considerable excursions for a meal on occasion. 



Rate of growth. — The few data that have so far been gathered as to the rate 

 of growth of this species are somewhat contradictory. Thus the measurements of 

 Scottish fish tabulated by Fidton seem to us to warrant his schedule of a mean 

 length of about 63^ inches at 6 months, 123^ inches at a year and a half, 18 to 183^ 

 inches at two and one-half years, and his assumption that in Scottish waters a goose- 

 fish 3 years old wiU be about 21 inches long and one 4 years old about 26 or 27 

 inches in length. Bay of Fundy specimens examined by Connolly (1920) had grown 

 little more than half as fast (if the concentric rings in their vertebrje on which he 

 based his estimates are indeed annual), for fish with 4 rings were only about 18 

 inches long, those with 9 rings about 31 inches, fish with 10 rings about 37 inches, 

 and those having 12 rings were about 40 inches in length. No attempt has been 

 made to trace the growth of this fish living in other parts of the Gulf of Maine or 

 on Georges Bank. 



The smallest ripe males seen by Fulton were 26 to 27 inches long and females 

 were 30 inches, which would mean an age of 4 to 5 years, according to the faster 

 growth schedule and 7 to 8 years by the slower one, while goosefish seldom matiu-e 

 in either side of the North Atlantic when less than about 30 inches long. 



Breeding habits. — The spa^v^ling season covers a long period. Off the southern 

 coasts of New England goosefish eggs have been taken as early as May (Woods 

 Hole) and as late as August (Newport), but breeding may not commence until 

 early summer north of Cape Cod, for June 24 (Passamaquoddy Bay') is the earhest 

 date on which eggs have been seen north of Cape Cod while August 8 (off Penobscot 

 Bay, Grampus, station 10025) and 9 (Bay of Fimdy) are the latest dates. 



In Scottish waters the breeding season is about a month earlier both in its 

 inception and probably in its completion, judging from the state of sexual maturity 



' Connolly, 1922, p. 116. 



