FAMILY GADID — MERLANGUS. 287 
it ends abruptly in a small pit or depression, but I was unable to detect in this place any con- 
nexion outwardly. A small flat reddish gland on its interior surface. 
Color. Dark olive-green above, paler on the sides ; summit of the head olive brown. Irides 
silvery. Interior of the mouth dark colored. Tongue silvery in the middle, blackish on the 
sides ; the roof of the mouth silvery and flesh-colored. Gill-covers silvery. Abdomen white. 
Length, 18:0. Depth, 4°0. 
Fin rays, D: 13:.21221 3 P2207 Va A. 25.201 C. 24 &, 
This fish occurs in our markets occasionally during the winter. It is taken with the com- 
mon cod, but it is by no means common on the coast of New-York. On the coast of Massa- 
chusetts, north of Cape Cod, in the spring and autumn, they are very numerous. I have 
seen a specimen weighing seventeen pounds, three feet two inches long; but the individual 
described above is-of the average size. 
THE COAL FISH. 
MERLANGUS CARBONARIUS, 
PLATE XLV. FIG. 144. — (STATE COLLECTION.) 
Gadus carbonarius. LiNNeus, Syst. Nat. 12 Ed. p. 438. 
Merlangus id. Cuvier, Régne Animal. 
Gadus (Merlangus) carbonarius, Ricuarrson, F, B. Am. Vol. 3, p. 247. 
Merlangus carbonarius, The Coal-fish. StToRER, Massachusetts Report, p. 129. 
Characteristics. Dark brown or deep black. The third dorsal of nineteen or twenty rays. 
Lower jaw slightly longest. Length one to three feet. 
Description. Body fusiform, cylindrical, approaching the mackerel in shape; covered with a 
thick mucous coating, which at first conceals the scales. These are small, oblong, and of the 
shape represented in the plate ; the exposed surface very small, and concentrically striate. 
The scales extend over the opercles, the head beyond the nostrils, the anterior part of all the 
dorsal fins, and high up on the caudal fin; on the summit of the head, they are very minute, 
oblong, and resemble those on some species of serpents. The lateral line straight, and 
descending obliquely through the tail; the fleshy portion of the tail elongated. Head tapering 
to the snout, flattened above. Eyes large, prominent, near the facial outline, and rather 
nearer the snout than to the posterior margin of the opercles. Nostrils double, contiguous ; 
the anterior valvular. A series of mucous pores around the jaws. Lower jaw, when closed, 
0-2 longer than the upper. A band of card-like teeth on each side of the upper jaw, sepa- 
rated by an interval, and with smaller ones on the vomer. A similar but continuous band on 
the lower jaw, interspersed with larger acute distant teeth. 
The first dorsal fin triangular, slightly higher than long, commences an inch before a point 
vertical to the vent, and terminates over the first rays of the anterior anal fin. Second dorsal 
ends just behind the termination of the first anal; the third begins before the origin of the 
. >, 
