NOTES ON NEW JERSEY FISHES. . 391 



Family BATRACHOIDIDiE. 



Opsanus tau (Linnaeus). 

 Oyster Fish. 



Color when fresh, pale olive- brown, generally paler below, and 

 tinted with salmon-pink on breast and throat. Head above finely 

 mottled and speckled with very fine numerous markings of dusky- 

 olive. Some also on base of pectoral. Side of head and flanks with 

 brownish specks. Trunk with dusky to blackish vermiculations and 

 blotches. Vertical fins and pectoral like back, becoming terra-cotta 

 to ochraceous tinted towards margins, and all barred with dusky. 

 Spinous dorsal mottled. Rayed dorsal with broad bands, somewhat 

 irregular, and sloping down behind. Caudal with five transverse 

 bands, outer broadest, and also broad dark band on caudal peduncle 

 at base of fin. Anal with pale, rather narrow and ill-defined bands 

 obliquely up behind. Pectoral with about seven or eight transverse 

 narrow bands, irregular towards base of fin, and distal ones broader. 

 Ventral pale salmon or pinkish. Iris gray-brown, narrow dull gilt 

 circle around slaty pupil. Length eight and three-quarter inches. 

 Ocean City. September 7th, 1908. David McCadden. Also three 

 more examples. 



Dr. Phillips says it is not rare at Corson's Inlet. It is caught along 

 muddy banks when fishing for small sea bass. Runs about six inches 

 in length. 



Family GADID^Sl. 



Microgadus tomcod (Walbaum). 

 Tom Cod. 



Reported to Dr. Phillips at Corson's Inlet, though not seen. 



