438 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



nearly straight, which gives the fins an aspect 

 noticeably different from that of the rosefish. The 

 space between the eyes (flat in the rosefish) is 

 grooved in the black-bellied species ; there are only 

 12 spines in the spiny portion of its dorsal fin (14 or 

 15 in the rosefish) and only 5 or 6 soft anal rays 

 instead of 7 (in addition to 3 stiff spines). 



Its caudal fin is relatively larger than that of the 

 rosefish; its eyes closer together, the distance be- 

 tween them being less than one-half as great as 

 the diameter of the eye (about two-thirds to three- 

 quarters in the rosefish); the maximum depth of 

 its body is somewhat less than the distance from 

 tip of upper jaw to upper corner of gill cover; and 

 its scales are larger relatively. 47 A more important 

 difference anatomically is that the red bream has 

 only 24 or 25 vertebrae, the rosefish 31. 



Color.- — More or less vivid reddish or pale 

 pinkish, usually with some brown and green along 

 the back and with irregular cross bands of darker 

 or brighter scarlet on some specimens; the upper 

 part of the sides marked with a sparse pattern of 

 narrow, dusky vemiculations, roughly following 

 the edges of the scales; and each gill cover gener- 

 ally has a leaden or dusky patch caused by the 

 black inner surface shining through the bone. The 

 lower surface is without dark markings. All the 

 fins are pinkish, the spiny part of the dorsal 

 mottled with white, and the soft portion of the 

 dorsal, the ventrals, and the anal edged with white. 

 The lining of the belly cavity is black, hence one 

 of its common names. 



Size. — Maximum length about 15 inches. 



Habits. — Catch records show that the black- 

 bellied rosefish sometimes are in the mid-depths, 

 sometimes on bottom or close to it. Beyond 

 this nothing is known of their daily life. Neither 



is it known definitely whether their eggs are 

 hatched within the oviducts of the mother, as in 

 the rosefish (p. 433), or whether they are set free 

 in the water, like those of most fishes. 48 



General range. — Known from the eastern slope 

 of Georges Bank westward and southward to 

 Florida in depths of 68 to 373 fathoms in the 

 western Atlantic; from Norway to the Canaries 

 in the eastern; also in the Mediterranean. 



Occurrence in the Gulf oj Maine. — This fish 

 must be generally distributed over the outer part 

 of the continental shelf and along the upper part 

 of the continental slope as far east as the general 

 offing of Nantucket, for it has been reported from 

 27 stations between longitude 72° and a few 

 miles east of longitude 70°, 49 including one catch 

 of more than 100 of them, 4% to 11 inches long, 

 in one haul, by the Albatross III. 10 One about 

 13 inches long was trawled on the eastern edge of 

 Georges Bank, at 175 fathoms, October 6, 1929." 

 Subsequent records that fall within the limits set 

 here for the Gulf of Maine, are of 24 fish, 4-10 

 inches long, trawled at 5 stations south of Nan- 

 tucket, at 68-240 fathoms, by the Albatross III, 

 May 11-18, 1950; of one brought in by the trawler 

 Red Jacket from the northern slope of Georges 

 Bank, from 120 fathoms, in 1949 ; 82 and of a catch 

 of about 300 pounds of them, made in the south- 

 eastern part of the basin of the Gulf, at 120-140 

 fathoms, July 24, 1948. 63 



This last catch is especially interesting, for 

 it shows that schools of black-bellied rosefish 

 may occasionally come in via the deep channel 

 between Georges and Browns Banks. But they 

 have never been reported in the inner parts of 

 the Gulf, nor are they to be expected there unless 

 as strays from offshore. 



BOAR FISHES. FAMILY CAPROIDAE 



Boar fish Antigonia capros Lowe 1843 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1665. 

 Description. — This Boar Fish 64 is set apart 

 from all other Gulf of Maine fishes by the fact 

 that its very thin body is deeper than it is long 

 (longer than deep in all other species yet recorded 

 from our Gulf). It resembles the John Dory 



"i About 42-48 oblique rows of scales from upper comer of Rill opening to 

 base of caudal fin in Helicolenus, 60-70 in Sebastes. 



" Ehrenbaum (Nordisches Plankton, Zool., vol. 1, 1905, p. 51) thought it 

 probable that this is an egg-laying species, and Taning (Journal du Conseil, 

 Conseil Internat. Explor. de la Mer, vol. 16, 1949, p. 86) so characteristics it. 

 But its ripe eggs have not been seen, so far as we know. 



<• For list of stations, with depths, up to 1895, see Goode and Bean, Smith- 



(p. 297) in the general arrangement of its fins, 

 both the spiny portion of the dorsal and the soft 

 portion being well developed, with the latter much 

 the longer of the two, but lower; the soft-rayed 



sonian Contrib. Knowl., vol. 30, 1895, pp. 251-252, as Helicolenm maderensis; 

 Albatross III, also, trawled one or more specimens at nine stations off 

 southern New England in May 1950. 



» Latitude 39°42' N., longitude 71°57' W., 145-210 fathoms. May 12, 1950. 



« This specimen, reported by Firth (Bull. 61, Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 1931, 

 p. 13) is in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 



•> Specimen in Museum of Comparative Zoology. 



» Taken by the schooner Alice M. Doughty, Capt. Manual Silva. Six of 

 these specimens are in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 



« This is the only member of the family that has been reported from the 

 western side of the North Atlantic. 



