0)74 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



iiiid also oil lines fished for cod. The range of the species is, in 

 the north Atlantic, south to Cape Cod and France. It is rather 

 common both in America and Europe. In Norway the skin of 

 the fish is tanned and makes a ver}' good leather. 



Group OPHIDIOIDEI 



Eelpouts 

 Family ^oarcidak 



Genus zoarces Gill 

 Body elongate, compressed, tapering posteriorly; head oblong, 

 heavy, narrowed above, the profile decurved; mouth large; teeth 

 strong, conic, bluntish, in two series in the front of each jaw 

 and one series on the sides; teeth in outer series larger; no teeth 

 on vomer or palatines; dorsal fin very long, low, some of its 

 posterior rays much lower than the others, developed as sharp 

 spines; pectoral fins broad; ventrals jugular, of three or four 

 soft rays; scales small, not imbricated, embedded in the skin; 

 lateral line slender, lateral in position; size large; species vivi- 

 parous. The American and Asiatic species (subgenus M a. c r o - 

 zoarces ) differ from the European type of Zoarces 

 (Cuvier) in the increased number of fin rays and vertebrae. In 

 Z o a r c ( s v i v i p a r u s (Linnaeus), the European eelpout, the 

 doi'sal rays are about 100, the anal about 85, and the number 

 of vertebrae is i>roportionally diminished. 



332 Zoarces anguillaris (Peck) 



Mutton fish; Ling; Eelpmit 



Illniniua aiigriillaris Pkck, Mem. Am. Ac. Sci. II, 46, figure, 1S04, New 

 Ilninpsliire. 



nicnniiis cUiatus .Mitcuill, Traus. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I. 374. pi I. fig. 6. 



1815. 

 lilninius hibrosKfi Mi rt nirx, op. cit. 375, pi. I, fig. 7, 1815. 

 /onrrrs iniiinill^iri.s Stoker, Rep. Fish. Mass. 66, 1S39; De Kay, N. Y. 



Fauna. Fishes. 155, pi. 16, fig. 45, 1842; Gtjnther, Cat Fish. Brit. Mus. 



III. -n>6, 18G1; Storer, Hist. Fish. Mass. 97, pi. XYII, fig,. 4, 1867: 



<!<<. i.K & Be.\x. Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 9, 1879; Jordan & Gilbert. 



Hiil^ 16. U. S. Nat. Mus. 784, 1883; H. M. Smith, Bull. U. S. F. C. 



1m;)7. 106. l,S!8; .Jordan & Ea^ermann, Bull. 47, TT S Nat Mus III 



2157. 1898; IN", pi. GOCXLVIII, fig. 850, 1900. 



Tlie dcplli of ilir l.ody is one seventh of ihc length, which is 

 si.\ limes the length of the head. Maxillary reaching beyond 



