HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 265 



It feeds upon the Mollusca and Testacea, and the flesh of the young fish is sweet and 

 very palatable. The following shells I have found in its stomach : Buccinum undatum, 

 Fusus corneus and pleurotomarius and turricula, Turbo inflatus and obscwus, Natica 

 triseriata and consolidata, Bulla tritacea, Tellina sordida, Nucula minuta, Trichotropis 

 borealis, Turritella erosa, Venus gemma, Pecten Islandicus ; and a species of Pectinaria. 



It is seldom met with in Boston market ; occasionally, however, it is brought in by 

 the cod-fishers of Massachusetts Bay, by whom it is known as the Ling and Conger-Eel. 



Captain Atwood informs me that it is not taken so often at Provincetown of late 

 years as formerly. 



My son observed it on the coast of Labrador in 1849. 



Labrador, H. R. STOKER. New Hampshire, PECK. Maine, Massachusetts, STOKER- 

 New York, MITCHILL, CUVIER, DEKAY. 



GENUS V. ANARRHICAS, LIN. 



Head smooth, rounded, muzzle obtuse ; body elongated, covered with minute scales ; 

 dorsal and anal fins long, distinct from the caudal ; no ventral fins. Teeth of two 

 kinds ; those in front elongated, curved, pointed ; the others on the vomer, as also on 

 the jaws, truncated or slightly rounded ; branchiostegous rays, six. 



ANARRHICAS VOMERINUS, Agassis, MS. 



The American Wolf-fish. 



(PLATE XVIII. FIG. 1. ( \ ?' 4 hea ^ in front '. \ 



\ (l.o. teeth as seen in front./ 



Anarrhicas lupus, Sea- Wolf, MITCHILL, Amer. Month. Mag., v. p. 242. 



" " " STOKER, Report, p. 69. 



" " " DEKAY, Report, p. 158, pi. 16, fig. 43. 



" " STOKER, Mem. Amer. Acad., New Series, n. p. 376. 



" " " " Synopsis, p. 124. 



Anarrhicas vomerinus, AGASSIZ, MS. 



Color. Of a purplish brown, with ten or twelve transverse nearly black bars pass- 

 ing from the abdomen high upon the dorsal fin. Beneath lighter. One large speci- 

 men was of a light flesh-color, thickly spotted with moderately sized black ocelli. 

 Rays of dorsal black, intervening membrane dark gray or slate ; pectorals and anal 

 leaden-gray ; caudal slate-color, reddish at extremity. 



Description. Body elongated, subcylindrical, compressed posteriorly, covered with an 

 extremely viscid secretion. Head large, compressed at sides, rounded, slightly flattened 

 above. Length of head more than one fourth the entire length of the body. Rows 



VOL. V. NEW SERIES. 37 



