326 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



Georges Bank, December 8, 1930, and of another of 39 inches at Provincetown, 

 July 28, 1931, deserve mention here. 



Chimaera, Chimaera affinis Capello 



It was formerly believed that the chimaera did not exceed a length of about 3 

 feet, but a specimen measuring 49 inches in length, VI % pounds in weight dressed, 

 was taken October 15, 1930, 85 miles south by west of Cape Sable in a depth of 

 about 400 fathoms (Firth, 1931, p. 9). 



Common sturgeon, Acipenser sturio Linnaeus 



Although sturgeon have seldom been reported from offshore, the recent captures 

 of a 268-pound fish in South Channel the end of April 1928, of another of 420 

 pounds in April 1929, of a 335-pound fish trawled on Browns Bank in April 1936, 

 and of a 435-pound fish on Georges Bank, latitude 41°00' N., longitude 67°45' W., 

 on January 7, 1931, indicate that they are to be occasionally found on our outer 

 fishing banks. 



Short-nosed sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostris LeSueur 



A 30-inch specimen, taken at Provincetown about 1907, now in the collection 

 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, is the only reliable record for the Gulf of 

 Maine. This record was omitted from "Fishes of the Gulf of Maine" (Bigelow and 

 Welsh, 1925). 



Eel, Anguilla rostrata (LeSueur) 



The known range of the American eel in northern waters has been extended to 

 the west coast of Greenland (Jensen, 1926, p. 101). 



American conger, Conger oceanica (Mitchill) 



The American conger, long considered identical with the European, has recently 

 been shown by Schmidt (1931) to be a distinct species, characterized by having fewer 

 (140-149) vertebrae than the European (154-163 vertebrae); a relationship paralleling 

 that between the American and European eels of the genus Anguilla. 



The American conger ranges along the continental shelf northward to Cape Cod. 

 Its southern boundary cannot be stated until the congers of the coasts of North and 

 South America have been critically compared. 



Additional to the few records of larvae already reported from the Gulf of Maine 

 are those of two specimens (4% inches long) picked up on the beach at Newburyport, 

 Mass., in November 1929, which were sent to us for identification. 



Dr. Johannes Schmidt's discovery 4 of very young larvae in the West Indian 

 region, but nowhere else, points to this as the chief, if not the only, spawning ground 

 of the American conger. 



Snake eel, Pisodonophis cruentifer Goode and Bean 



Goode and Bean's (1896, p. 147) record of this species from Jeffreys Bank — the 

 only one for the gulf — was omitted from "Fishes of the Gulf of Maine." A number 

 of specimens have been taken recently between the offings of Nantucket and of Cape 

 Henry, Va., in depths ranging from 24 to 245 fathoms by the Fish Hawk and the 

 Albatross II. 



1 See Schmidt, 1931, p. 602, for a discussion of this question. 



