Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 37 



ably Penobscot, and offshore on the continental slope to the zone deeper than about 100 

 fathoms. 



The Hag is not a parasite, as has sometimes been suggested, there being no reason 

 to believe that it ever attacks living, uninjured fish. But it is a scavenger, feeding largely 

 on dead or disabled fish of any sort, into which it bores by means of its rasp-like tongue. 

 It is best known for its habit of penetrating the body cavities of hooked or gilled fishes, 

 eating out first the intestines and then the meat, leaving nothing but a bag of skin and bones, 

 inside of which the Hag itself is often hauled on board} or it may be captured clinging to 

 the side of a fish it has just attacked. In Norwegian waters as many as six Hags have been 

 reported in a single haddock." It is also known to prey on marine polychaete worms, at 

 least in Norwegian waters, and it has been suggested that these may be its normal diet.^* 



Being blind, the Hag evidently finds its food by scent, and so successfully that large 

 numbers are sometimes taken in pots baited with dead fish or other offal j a local instance 

 is mentioned below. 



The fact that the eggs of the Hag have been found off southern Newfoundland at 

 the mouth of the Bay of Fundy and on Georges Bank on one side of the Atlantic, and on the 

 other side, near the Faroes, in Norwegian waters and off Morocco, shows that it spawns 

 throughout its range; also, it spawns throughout the year, for females nearing ripeness, 

 and others nearly spent, have been recorded for various months, winter and spring, as well 

 as summer and autumn j in Norwegian waters eggs have been taken from November to 

 May. The few eggs so far reported have been from depths of 50 to 150 fathoms, and most 

 of them have been trawled on mud, clay, or sandy bottoms."" 



Numerical A bundance. In American waters the Hag has usually been noted as being 

 not very common. Actually it occurs in very considerable numbers on suitable mud bottoms 

 at the appropriate depths, though rarely elsewhere, if at all. Thus, in the spring of 19 13 

 the Hag was so plentiful on the Boon Island-Isles of Shoals fishing grounds that three 

 to five per cent of all the haddock that we saw taken in gill nets had been attacked by 

 them. Similarly, fishermen report that in certain areas of soft bottom in the northern part 

 of the Gulf of Maine they damage a large proportion of the fish caught on long lines, 

 unless the latter are tended frequently. The vicinity of Grand Manan Island at the mouth 

 of the Bay of Fundy, and the trough with mud bottom between Jeffrey's Ledge and the 

 coastline on the western side of the Gulf of Maine, are centers of abundance with which 

 local fishermen have long been familiar. And evidently they are plentiful locally on the 

 upper part of the continental slope off southern New England as well, for we took 1 1 large 

 ones in an hour or less with one set of the Monaco trap off Nantucket at 260 fathoms on 

 July 8, 1908. But we question whether they ever occur in American waters in such num- 

 bers as in the fjords of western Sweden and southern Norway, where catches of 100 are 



23. S. Nilsson, Prod. Ichthyol. Skand., 1831: 124. 



24. Gustafson, Arkiv. f. Zoologi, Stockholm, 28A (2), 1935. 



25. Hjort, Rep. Norweg. Fish. Invest, / (i), 1900: 75. 



