234 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



70. THE HAKES PHYCIS CHUSS, ETC. 



DISTRIBUTION. We have five species of the genus Phycis. One, P. Chesteri, recently discov- 

 ered by the Fish Commission, occurs off the coast from Cape Ann to Cape Hatteras, at a depth of 

 from seventy-five to three hundred fathoms. It lias been collected in great numbers with the deep- 

 sea trawl-nets used by the Fish Commission and the Coast Survey, and appears to be extremely 

 abundant. It is, at present, of no economic importance. It may be distinguished by its exceed- 

 ingly long fin-filaments. 



Another species, the King Hake, P. regius, occurs in deep water with the preceding, and 

 has also been found near the shore in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras, in Chesapeake Bay, and at the 

 eastern end of Long Island. A specimen was obtained many years ago at Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

 In the Chesapeake, according to Major Ferguson, it is very abundant. 



This fish attains the length of twelve to fifteen inches. Concerning its habits little is known, 

 except that it has the power of communicating strong electric shocks. It may be distinguished 

 by the low first dorsal fin, unprovided with a filament and black at its tip, and by the peculiar row 

 of white spots along the lateral line. P. Earllii occurs only on the coast of South Carolina. 



The two species which have a commercial value are P. chuss and P. tennis. These species 

 are very similar in appearance, and it is with difficulty that they can be distinguished from each 

 other by the trained eye of the zoologist. The most tangible distinction may be found in the 

 number of scales, which are much smaller in P. tennis, there being from one hundred and thirty- 

 five to one hundred and forty oblique rows between the bronchial opening and the root of the 

 caudal fin, while there are about twelve rows between the lateral line and the region of the first 

 dorsal. In P. cliu*s there are only one hundred rows in the lateral line and nine rows above the 

 lateral line; in the former the ventral does not ordinarily reach quite to the vent, in the latter it 

 extends beyond the vent. This character, however, could not always be relied upon. 



Our Hakes are all quite different from the Forked Beard, P. blennioides, of Great Britain, some- 

 times called the Hake's Dame, which is a member of the same genu^. 1 Owing to their great simi- 

 larity, Phycis chuss and P. tennis are usually known indifferently by the name " Hake" ; the former, 

 however, is sometimes called the Old English Hake, and the other, Phycis tennis, the Squirrel 

 Hake or White Hake. In the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Bay of Chaleur, and also south of 

 Cape Cod, they are invariably called Ling. There has been much confusion both in the names 

 and descriptions applied to them by fishermen and ichthyologists. Their geographical range 

 appears to be essentially the same. The young of one or both species are frequently taken swim- 

 ming at the surface, on the southern coast of New England, in midsummer, and numerous 

 individuals have been found off Block Island and Watch Hill, seeking shelter between the valves 

 of a large species of scallop, Pecten tenuicostatus ; the majority appear to belong to the species of 

 P. chuss. About sixty were obtained from a single trawl-full of Pectens taken off Watch Hill, 

 September, 1874, where they were found in one out of every three or four shells taken. Their 

 companions in the interior of the shells were a species of Pinnotheres, related to the oyster crab, 

 and a species of lump-sucker, Liparis lineatus. 



One or both species are frequently taken by the cod-fishermen, on the shoals south of Cape 

 Cod, but they are there considered to be of but little value. They are more or less abundant in 

 Massachusetts Bay, in the Bay of Fundy, and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Large specimens of 

 one or both species have been taken at a depth of three hundred fathoms as far south as Virginia. 



The Hake of Europe is a different fish, more closely related to the Silver Hake or Whiting of the New England 

 coast, Aferluciut Irilinearis. 



