Jordan and Evermann. — Fishes of North America. 2551 



yellowish or dusky beneath; young often sharply marked, the adult 

 becoming dull grayish; vertical fins with dusky margins. Leno-th 2 

 feet. Lakes and sluggish streams. New England and Great Lake 

 region, north to the Arctic seas and west to the headwaters of the Mis- 

 souri, the Frazer RiA'er basin, and Bering Straits; abundant northward* 

 rare in the Ohio River and the Upper Mississippi; a rather coarse and 

 tasteless fish, seldom used as food. Here described from a specimen, 18 

 inches long, from Lake Michigan at Michigan City, Indiana. The Ameri- 

 can Burbot is very close to the common species of northern Europe and 

 Asia, Lota Iota (Linnaeus) = Xo/« vulgarh, Cuvier=Zo/a communis, Rapp, 

 and may prove wholh' identical with the latter. In Lota Iota the pec- 

 torals reach beyond front of dorsal, being IJ in head, {maculostis, spotted.) 



Gadus tnaculosut, Le Sueue, Jour. Ac. Nat. Sci. Pbila., l, 1817, 83, Lake Erie. 



Molva maculona, Le Sueur, Mem. Mus., v, 1819, pi. 16. 



Lota maculosa, De Kay, New York F.-iuna: Fishes, 284, pi. 52, flg. 168, 1842. 



Oadus compressus, Le Sueur, Jour. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., i, 1817, 84, Connecticut River. 



Lota compressa, De Kay, New York, Fauna: Fishes, 285, pi. 78, Hgii. 244, 245, 1842. 



Gadus lacusiris, Mitchill, Amer. Monthly Mag., n, 1818, 244, Sebago Pond, Maine 



(Coll. Henrj' A. S. Dearborn). 

 Molva hnntia, Le Sueur, Mem. Mus., v, 1819, 161, Connecticut River. 

 Lota inornata, De Kay, New York Fauna : Fishes, 283, pi. 45, fig. 145, 1842, Hudson River, 



Lansingburgh, N. Y. 

 Lota brosmiana, .Storer, Boston Journ. Nat. Hist., iv, 1839, pi. 5, tig. 1, New Hampshire. 



989. MOLVA, Fleming. 



(Lings.) 



Molva, Fleming, British Animals, 192, 1828 (vulyaru). 

 Molva, NiLSSON, Skandinav. Fauna, iv, 573, 1832 (molva). 



Body elongate, covered with very small scales. Chin with a barbel; 

 lower jaw included; bands of teeth on jaws and vomer; lower jaw with 

 large canines which are arrow-shaped and movable ; vomer with a curved 

 series of canines mixed with small teeth, these mostly fixed; no teeth on 

 palatines. Gill membranes broadly united. Two dorsal fins, both well 

 developed ; 1 anal fin ; Aentrals with several rays. Northern seas. (An 

 old name of the salt-water ling.) 



2923. MOLTA MOLVA (Linnteus), 



Head 5; depth 7 or 8. D. 13 to 16-63 to 70; A. 57 to 66 (vertebra^ 

 27 -f 37 = 64). Upper jaw the longer, the maxillary reaching to below mid- 

 dle of orbit. Teeth cardiform in the jaws, Avith an inner row of rather 

 widely separated and larger ones on mandible ; a semicircular band on 

 vomer, among Avhich a few larger ones are interspersed. First dorsal 

 inserted OA'er the latter half of pectoral, its greatest height | that of body 

 below it ; pectoral about ^ as long as head ; anal insertion in vertical over 

 seventh or eighth ray of second dorsal. Barbel longer than eye, which is 

 about equal to width of interorbital space. Scales small, covering head 

 and fins. Color black gray, lighter on the sides and beneath ; vertical fins 

 edged with white; a dark blotch at the posterior end of the first dorsal, 

 and a more distinct one on the end of the second dorsal. Arctic parts of the 



