2540 Bulletin 4.7, United States National Museum. 



2908. MICROGADUS TOMCOD (Walbaum). 

 (ToMCOD; FROSTFISH.) 



Head 4 in body ; depth 5. D. 13 to 15-15 to 19-16 to 18 ; A. 17 to 21-16 to 

 20; eye 5 in head; maxillary 2|; pectoral If; middle caudal rays 2 ; first 

 dorsal rays If. Snout rounded, less produced than in Microyadus prox- 

 imus; mouth short; maxillary 2 in head, reaching pupil; eye large, 3| in 

 head; barbel small; pectorals reaching vent; ventrals filamentous, not 

 reaching vent; vent under interval between first and second dorsals. 

 Color olive brown, distinctly blotched and spotted with darker, lighter 

 on the belly; more opaque than in M. proximns; back and sides profusely 

 punctulate; dorsals and caudal blotched with darker; anals coarsely 

 punctulate anteriorly, colorless posteriorly ; ventrals and pectorals dusky. 

 Virginia to Labrador; very common northward, and valued as a food-fish. 

 Here described from a specimen, 9 inches in length, from Boston, Massa- 

 chusetts. Length 1 foot, (tomcod, a vernacular name.) 



Tomcod, SCHOPF, Schrift. Naturf. Freunde, Vin, 140, 1780, New York. 



Gadus tomcod, WALBAUM, Artedi Piscium, m, 133, 1792, after SCHOPF ; JORDAN & GILBERT, 



Synopsis, 806, 1883. 

 Gadus frost, "WALBAUM, Artedi Piscium, in, 134, 1792, North America; after Frost-fish of 



Pennant. 

 Gadus tomcodus, MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc., 1, 1815, 368, New York ; GUNTHER, 



Cat., iv, 331, 1862. 



Gadus pruinosus, MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc., 1, 1815, 368. New York. 

 Gadus tomcodus fuscus, MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc., 1, 1815, 369, New York. 

 Gadus tomcodus luteus, MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc., 1, 1815, 369, New York. 

 Gadus tomcodus mixtus, MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc., 1, 1815, 369, New York. 

 Gadus polymorphus, MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc., 1, 1815, 369, New York. 

 Morrhua americana, STOREB, Kept. Fish. Mass., 120, 1839, coast of Massachusetts. 



981. GADUS (Artedi) Linnaeus. 



(CODFISHES.) 



Gadus, LINNAEUS, Syst. Nat., Ed. x, 251, 1758 (morhua) -, after ARTEDI. 

 Morrhua, OKEN, Isis 1817, 1182 (morrhua; on les Morrhues of CUVIKR). 

 Cepphus, SWAINSON, Nat. Hist. Class'n Fishes, n, 300, 1839 (macrocephalus) . 



Body moderately elongate, compressed and tapering behind. Scales 

 very small ; lateral line present, pale. Head narrowed anteriorly ; mouth 

 moderate, the maxillary reaching past front of eye; chin with a barbel; 

 teeth in jaws cardiform, subequal; vomer with teeth; none on the pala- 

 tines; cranium without the expanded crests seen in Melanogrammus; no 

 part of the skeleton expanded and ivory-like. Dorsal fins 3, well sepa- 

 rated; anal fins 2 ; ventral fins well developed, of about 7 rays. Species 

 of the Northern Seas; highly valued as food. (Gadus, the Latin name, 

 akin to the English word cod. ) 



a. Eye moderate, about snout in adult ; axil without dusky spot. 



&. Air bladder large. Atlantic codfish. CALLARIAS, 2909. 



bb. Air bladder small. Pacific codfish. MACROCEPHALUS, 2910. 



aa. Eye large, more than \ length of snout; axil with a dusky spot; caudal peduncle 



slender. OGAC, 2911. 



