FAMILY GADID^ — MERLANGUS. 287 



It ends abruptly in a small pit or depression, but I was unable to detect in this place any con- 

 nexion outwardly. A small flat reddish gland on its interior surface. 



Color. Dark olive-green above, paler on the sides ; summit of the head olive brown. Irides 

 silvery. Interior of the mouth dark colored. Tongue silvery in the middle, blackish on the 

 sides; the roof of the mouth silvery and flesh-colored. Gill-covers silvery. Abdomen white. 



Length, 18-0. Depth, 4-0. 



Fmrays, D. 13.21.21; P. 20; V. 6 ; A. 25.20: C. 24 



nA 8 



This fish occurs in our markets occasionally during the winter. It is taken with the com- 

 mon cod, but it is by no means common on the coast of New- York. On the coast of Massa- 

 chusetts, north of Cape Cod,^ in the spring and autumn, they are very numerous. I have 

 seen a specimen weighing seventeen pounds, three feet two inches long ; but the individual 

 described above is of the average size. 



THE COAL FISH. 



Merlangiis careonarius. 

 plate xlv. fig. 144. — (state collection.) 



Gadus carbomriits. LiNNEDs, Syst. Nat. 12 Ed. p, 438. 



Merlangus id. CuviER, Regne Animal. 



Gadus (Merlangus) carbonarius. RiCHAKDSO.N, F. B. Am. Vol. 3, p. 247. 



Merlangus carbonarius. The Coal-fish. Stoker, Mass.ichusetts Report, p. 129. 



Characteristics. Dark brown or deep black. The third dorsal of nineteen or twenty rays. 

 Lower jaw slightly longest. Length one to three feet. 



Description. Body fusiform, cylindrical, approaching the mackerel in shape; covered with a 

 thick mucous coating, which at first conceals the scales. These are small, oblong, and of the 

 shape represented in the plate ; the exposed surface very small, and concentrically striate. 

 The scales extend over the opercles, the head beyond the nostrils, the anterior part of all the 

 dorsal fins, and high up on the caudal fin ; on the summit of the head, they are very minute, 

 oblong, and resemble those on some species of serpents. The lateral line straight, and 

 descending obliquely through the tail ; the fleshy portion of the tail elongated. Head tapering 

 to the snout, flattened above. Eyes large, prominent, near the facial outline, and rather 

 nearer the snout than to the posterior margin of the opercles. Nostrils double, contiguous ; 

 the anterior valvular. A series of mucous pores around the jaws. Lower jaw, when closed, 

 0'2 longer than the upper. A band of card-like teeth on each side of the upper jaw, sepa- 

 rated by an interval, and with smaller ones on the vomer. A similar but continuous band on 

 the lower jaw, interspersed with larger acute distant teeth. 



The first dorsal fin triangular, slightly higher than long, commences an inch before a point 

 vertical to the vent, and terminates over the first rays of the anterior anal fin. Second dorsal 

 ends just behind the termination of the first anal ; the third begins before the origin of the 



