DISCUSSION OF SPECIES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 



TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS— COntinuea. 



Current number of specimen 

 Locality 



Caudal : 



Length of middle raya 



Lenctb of external rays C superior. 



„ ) mlerior . 



Pector;il : 



Distance from anout 



Length Ir^^'KH^^ 



^ \ lett Bide . 



Ventral : 



Distance from anout 



Length 



Branohiostegals 



Dorsal 



Anal 



Caudal 



Pectoral 



Ventral 



Number of scales in lateral line 



Number of transverse ro wa above lateral line 



Number of transverse rowa below lateral line 



287 



This fish was first observed in 1879, whea a Cape Aun scliooner, the Win. V. ffutchings, 

 while setting trawl lines for cod on Nantncket shoals, took several hundred specimens. 

 The capture ol^so large a fish so entirely unlike anything known in American waters excited 

 much interest, and it was at first thought that it might become of economic importance. 

 The genus and species were immediately described, and a popular name was proposed, 

 taken from the fourth syllable of the name of the genus. 



In July of the same year, the schooner Clara F. Friend, while fishing for cod in the same 

 region, obtained nine of them at a station 50 miles south by east of Noman's Land, in N. 

 lat. iO° 10', W. Ion. 70° 5.5', at a depth of 75 fathoms, on very hard clay bottom. In Sep- 

 tember the Fish Commission steamer Fish Hatck went to the same region to search for 



thejn. 



The first trip of the Fish Eawk to deep water from Newport was on September 4, and 

 the nets were hauled as nearly as possible on the same grounds where Lopkolatilm had 

 previously been taken. The second trip, ten days later, was to a region abont 10 miles 

 farther west, and on this occasion six or more large individuals of this species were brought 

 up on a hand line ( ladder line) set from an open boat sent out from the steamer. None 

 were at any time taken in the trawl nets, though there is every reason to believe from the 

 success of the fishing vessels previously, and from th» number taken on the hand line by 

 the men in the small boat, that they were exceedingly abundant in this locality, and proba- 

 bly for hundreds of miles in either direction, or at any rate to the south. 



In ISSO and ISSl the Fish Hawk took tile fish on several occasions at depths of from 

 70 to 134 fathoms. The indications of the apparent abundance of a new and edible fish of 

 large size made Prof. Baird desirous of obtaining fuller knowledge of its habits and habi- 

 tat, in the hope that it might readily be taken in large numbers and prove an important 

 addition to the list of food-fishes. Unfortunately the Fish Commission had not yet built 

 the schooner Uranqms, so, having no vessel especially adapted for fishery research and pre- 

 pared to encounter all weather, it was necessary to charter a fishing smack for the work. 

 Unfortunately, too, bad or threatening weather seemed to have been chartered with the 

 smack, and only a brief and unsatisfactory trial could be made on the tile fish ground, so 

 that research was of necessity postponed until 1882. In the months of March and April, 

 1882, vessels arriving at Philadelphia, New York, and Boston reported having passed large 

 numbers of dead or dying fish scattered over an area of many miles, and from descriptions 

 and the occasional specimens brought in, it was evident that the great majority of tliese 

 were tile fish. Naturally these fish were not evenly distributed over all the area in 

 which they were seen, some observers reporting them as scattering, and others as at times 

 SO numerous that there would be as many as fifty on the space of a rod square. As one 



