60 NEW-yORK FAUNA. 



GENUS SEBASTES. Cuvier. 



Head covered with scales. No cirri. Eyes large. Opercular bones with several spines. 

 Branchial rays seven. A single dorsal fin, composed of spinous and flexible rays. Teeth 

 small, nmnei-ous, on the jaws, vomer and palatines . Lower rays of the pectorals flexible. 



Obs. This genus, now comprising about ten species, was first separated by Cuvier from 

 Scorpcena, with which it has many characters in common. On our coast, we have one spe- 

 cies common to both shores of the Atlantic. 



THE NORTHERN SEBASTES. 



Sebastes norvegicus. 



PLATE IV. FIG. II. 



Perca norvegica. MuLLEK, Zool. Dan. p. 4G, pi. 



Le Sebaste septentrionale, S. norvegicus. Cuv. et Val. Hist. Poiss. Vol. 4, p. 327, pi. 87. 



Norway Haddock, S. norvegicus. Yarrell, British Fishes, Vol. 1, p. 73, fig. ^ 



The Northern Sebasles. Richardson, Faun. Bor. Am. Fishes, p. 52. 



The Norway Haddock, S. norvegicus. Storer, Fishes of Massachusetts, p. 26. 



Characteristics. Uniform red above ; silvery beneath, without darker blotches or bands. 

 Length, one to two feet. 



Description. Body oblong, compressed, covered with small oval roughened scales, extend- 

 ing over all the head, and a part of the dorsal, anal and caudal fins : ninety are counted in the 

 length of the fish, and thirty to forty in a vertical line from the pectorals. Lateral line con- 

 current with the back, and composed of a series of about thirty-six tubes. Head flattened 

 above, and one-third of the total length. Preopercle rounded, with five spines ; opercle with 

 two ; sub and inter-opercle with one spine each. Scapular bones with two spines ; suborbital 

 with two. Four spines on the supra-orbital ridge, a minute one beneath, and two others 

 projecting backward. Mouth wide ; upper jaw very protractile, with a notch in the centre 

 for the reception of the lower jaw. Lower jaw with a prominent chin, and three large pores 

 under each branch of the jaw. 



The dorsal fin compound, with fifteen spinous rays, which are so distant from each other 

 as to make the base of this portion double the length of the other, althougii containing only 

 the same number of rays ; soft portion twice the height of the spinous portion. Pectorals 

 rounded, as wide as long ; the ten upper rays branched ; the nine lower articulated, but sim- 

 ple : all the rays extend somewhat beyond the membrane. Ventrals slightly behind the pecto- 

 rals ; of one spine, and five branched rays. Anal with three spines, of which the first is short 

 and robust, with seven or eight branched rays twice the length of the posterior spinous ray. 

 Caudal fin slightly excavated behind. 



