TION. 



240 VARIABLE COD FISH. Class IV. 



Ray and Ascanius: " We have the Gadus Cal- 

 larias very common on our coasts." From 

 what quarter this intelligence was communi- 

 cated, we are ignorant ; but as the fish is com- 

 mon in the Northern seas, and the Baltic, it 

 does not seem improbable, that it frequently 

 visits the coasts of this island, and has been 

 confounded with the common Codfish to which 

 it bears a considerable resemblance. Block 

 considers its distinctive character to consist in 

 the breadth of the lateral line, and its being 

 Descrip- marked with spots. The head is smaller than 

 that of the Hadock ; the mouth large, furnish- 

 ed in the upper jaw with several rows of teeth ; 

 on the lower, which is shortest, is a single row ; 

 on the chin is a single beard ; the eyes large 



Poissons, p. 393, speaks of a Red or Rock Codfish, found off the 

 Isle of Matt, as a variety of the common Codfish, but in the 

 Supplement, p. 673, he gives it on the authority of Monsieur 

 Noel, as a distinct species. He says it is very common on the 

 Western isles of Scotland, where it grows to the length of forty 

 inches ; that the belly is large ; the head long ; the teeth small 

 and sharp ; the chin bearded ; a groove on the top of the head ; 

 the tail elevated ; the lateral line white, and bent. He also adds 

 another under the name of Le Gade negre, caught off the isle of 

 Bute, in the Solway frith, and in the Mersey, near Liverpool. 

 His description is short ; he merely says, it grows to the length of 

 eight inches or a foot ; the lower jaw longest, and provided with a 

 beard ; two long filaments distinguish each ventral fin ; and that 

 the first dorsal consists only of one ray which is jointed. En. 



