HISTORY OP THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 269 



Remarks. This fish, which weighs from fifteen to seventy pounds, is not a common 

 species in Massachusetts Bay, although it is taken throughout its whole extent from 

 Lynn to Provincetown during the months of September, October, and November, and is 

 met with in great numbers at its mouth. It is captured with the hook, while fish- 

 ing for other species, and also in nets. Among the fishermen in some parts of the 

 Bay, there is a common saying, " When you take a goose-fish, look out for an easterly 

 storm." It is exceedingly voracious, feeding upon all kinds of fish, and the capacity 

 of its mouth enables it to swallow species as large as itself. Captain Atwood, of Prov- 

 incetown, tells me he has repeatedly seen one swimming towards the shore with an- 

 other of the same species as large as itself in its mouth. And both he and Captain 

 Nathaniel Blanchard, of Lynn, assure me, that, when opened, entire sea-fowl, such as 

 large gulls, are frequently found in their stomachs, which they supposed them to catch 

 in the night, while they are floating upon the surface of the water. I was informed 

 by Captain Leonard West, of Chilmark, that he had known a goose-fish to be taken 

 having in its stomach, six coots in a fresh condition. These he considered to have 

 been swallowed when they had been diving to the bottom in search of food. No use 

 is made of this fish, as its liver contains but little if any oil; and its flesh has no 

 fat. This is a singular fact, as most, if not all, other fish have either fat in their livers 

 or in their flesh. It is seldom that fat is found both in the liver and in other parts 

 of the body of a species. The dog-fish, however, supplies the fishermen with oil from 

 its liver, and its body when dried will burn, to use a fisherman's words, " like fat 

 pine." This is considered a very stupid fish ; thousands run ashore at Provincetown 

 every season, and are thus destroyed. They frequently swim towards the shore in 

 the day-time, and if pushed into the water by a passer-by are as likely to turn again 

 to the shore as from it. 



Maine, Massachusetts, STOKER. Connecticut, AYRES. New York, MITCHILL, CUVIER, 

 DEKAY. Delaware, DEKAY. 



GENUS II. CHIRONECTES, Cuv. 



Head vertically compressed. Three free rays on the summit of the head. Mouth 

 cleft more or less vertically, opening to the gills by a round aperture behind the 

 pectorals. Tongue edentate. Intermaxillaries, lower jaw, vomer, palatines, and 

 pharyngeals with minute, card-like teeth. Dorsal long. 



