248 THE COD FAMILY. 



— amidst the swarms of young fishes on the spawning-grounds 

 of Lofoten, and such would appear to be the ease. Whilst the 

 marginal fin is still continuous the black pigment of these 

 shorter forms of 7 — 8 mm. is scattered over the head, along the 

 dorsal and the ventral edges, with a few specks on the sides 

 posteriorly. At 11 mm., besides the foregoing, a very distinct 

 area of pigment-points occurs behind the breast-fins. A few 

 grains also appear on the latter and on the ventrals, which at 

 this stage form short fins with true rays. Some fin-rays are now 

 present in the second and third dorsals and in the two anal fins 

 as well as the tail, but the first dorsal has only embryonic rays. 

 The body is comparatively short and thick and the head large. 

 Such forms do not, so far as present experience goes, appear in 

 numbers inshore, but frequent the fishing banks offshore, es- 

 pecially in May. Instead of seeking their way inshore, indeed, 

 like the cod and green cod, the little haddock frequent the 

 deeper water, and they are abundant from 2.5 to 30 miles E. by 

 S. of the Island of May and near the " long forties," where the 

 mid-water net captures them along with swarms of young 

 whiting in the first weeks of July, and varying in length from 

 24 to 80 mm., as well as, in all probability, on both sides of these 

 sizes. 



At 24 mm. the little haddock is distinguished at once from 

 the whiting of the same length by the more compact outline ; 

 by the shorter first anal ; by the longer ventral (pelvic) fins, 

 which (long second ray) reach nearly as far backward as the tips 

 of the pectorals ; by the slightly larger eye ; by the presence of 

 more dark pigment generally on the fins, the ventrals being 

 quite pale in the whiting. On the other hand, the black 

 pigment on the head of the whiting is sometimes better marked, 

 and the same may be said of the tip of the snout (the 

 premaxillary and the mandibular regions). Both species have 

 the sides of the body dotted with pigment-specks from the 

 breast-fins backward, and dorsally forward to the snout, the 

 belly being pale and slightly silvery. The mandibular region, 

 inferiorly, in the whiting shows more numerous scattered 

 black chromatophores. Moreover, above and a little behind 

 the breast-fin of the haddock is an area dotted with very fine 



