33 



reputation of being one of the most rapacious fishes of the coast. 

 The various species of rock cod (Scorpsenidx) often come into the 

 market mutilated, having lost a portion of the posterior part of the 

 body. The dealers do not attribute this to the sharks, but to the green 

 cod, which, they say, seldom or never takes the hook itself, but, dart- 

 ing out of its hiding place among the rocks in pursuit of the rock 

 fish upon the hook, is caught and brought up along with it. It 

 attains far larger dimensions than any of its brethren, among either 

 the Chiridas or Scorpa nidae, reaching a length of four feet. Its range 

 extends along the greater part of the coast of California, but it is most 

 abundant from Monterey northward. Professor Jordan states that it 

 feeds on Crustacea and squid, as well as upon other fishes; and that 

 northward from San Francisco it attains a length of five to six feet, 

 and a weight of from fifty to sixty pounds. The flesh is usually of a 

 pale livid hue. On various parts of the coasl it is taken with gill 

 nets, as well as with hook and line. As a food fish it ranks high, and 

 its size and abundance render it one of the most important species. 

 Many are dried by the Chinese and Indian-. 



l'AM. S( ii|;i'.i:.\[l).K. 



The species of rock cod or Sebastichthys, known previous to the 

 presentyear, were eleven in number, and with Sebastodes paucispinis 

 and Scorpa na guttata, made a total el' thirteen Scorpa nida peculiar to 

 the coast of California. 



To his own great surprise Professor Jordan has. during his stay here 

 as Fish Commissioner, more than doubled this list; so that now 

 twenty-five species of Sebastichthys are known to occur, besides one 

 more northern form, making, with the other genera, a total of twenty- 

 seven fishes belonging to this family on the coast of ( alitornia. 



Several of the forms described by Professor Jordan had been 

 observed by the writer on previous occasions in the markets of San 

 Francisco, but their resemblance to species already described was so 

 great, the differences amounting often only to the greater or less 

 development of certain spines upon the head, or to peculiarities of 

 coloration, that, lacking the facilities for procuring an extended 

 series, he did not venture to describe any of them as new, the more 

 because the series of rock cod was already suspected by naturalists to 

 be too long. But Professor Jordan, by an extended examination 

 of numerous specimens of every species, of all ages and of both 

 sexes, has proved that the characters which separate the various 

 forms, slight though they may at first appear to be, are constant 

 and thus of specific value. The spines upon the head, by their greater 

 or less development, serration or by the addition of an extra pair; 

 the gill-rakers; the form and height of the spinous dorsal; in a few 

 cases the number of rays of the second dorsals and anal, and in all 

 the species the pattern of the coloration are the characters relied 

 upon to distinguish the species. The coloration is very constant in 

 this group, so much so that a change in its pattern, or even in its 

 color, is usually significant of a change of species. The twenty-five 

 species of Sebastichthys all occur in the Bay of Monterey, and many 

 of them at Santa Barbara, The Portuguese fishermen, who fish in 

 deep water, give to the species they take distinctive names, and are 

 perfectly well aware that they are different; but the Italians con- 

 s' • 



