FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 37 



it is sometimes sold in that market. Not having met with a 

 specimen, I copy the description of Mitchell : 



" With smutty face, banded sides, pale complexion, promi- 

 nent eyebrows, and grooved spinous dorsal fin. Weighs four- 

 teen or fifteen pounds. One that weighed four pounds and a 

 half, measured twenty inches in length, eight in depth, and 

 three in thickness. The form of the mouth, and a certain 

 smuttiness of the face, have a distant resemblance to the phys- 

 iognomy of the sheep. Thence comes the name by which he 

 is usually distinguished. Teeth covered by the lips which 

 are large and distinct. Four incisors in each jaw, and two 

 other teeth situated next to them, one on each side, that may 

 be considered as canine. The former are straight, the latter 

 are rather turned inwards. Within, and beyond these, two or 

 three rows of round topped grinders, making a bony pavement 

 as it were, inside of the mouth. No cirrhus or roughness of 

 any kind on the head, neck or snout. Lower jaw shorter than 

 the upper. Nostrils double. Eyes large, vertical, brown, and 

 connected by a prominent brow. Head united to the body 

 without any proper neck. Gill-covers broad and smooth ; 

 opening ample. From a scaly spot a little above the branchial 

 aperture, proceeds a colored and curved streak to the withers. 

 A single dorsal fin, strong and spinous, lowering into a deep 

 furrow the greatest part of its course. The expanded tail 

 measures six inches across, and is nearly concave, or almost 

 lunated. A scaly process near the insertion of the ventral fin. 

 Lateral line almost corresponds with the arch of the back, and 

 radiates prettily on the scales over which it passes. General 

 color of the sheep's head a white, or obscure silvery, with a 

 smutty daubing over the face and chin, a greenish tinge above 

 the brow, and six or seven dark bands or zones, of an inch or 

 more in breadth, regularly slanting from back to belly ; the 

 latter a dull white, approaching in some places and individuals 

 to cream color. Scales large, horny, distinguished by radiated 

 and concentric lines, and somewhat like a square rounded a 

 little at the corners. They are deeply inserted into the skin j 



