380 FISHES OP NORTH CAROLINA. 



A rather uncommon fish along the coast from New York to Texas. A 

 single specimen, observed by Dr. Coues at Beaufort in 1871, remained the only- 

 North Carolina record until 1904, when Dr. E. W. Gudger obtained a specimen 

 4.5 inches long on a sandy shoal near the laboratory at Beaufort. Very little 

 has been published regarding the habits of Rissola or other members of the 

 family, and Dr. Gudger's observations on the behavior of this specimen cover 

 practically all that is known:* 



On July 13, 1904, while walking on a sand spit, exposed at low water and lying northwest 

 of the island on which is situated the laboratory of the United States Bureau of Fisheries at 

 Beaufort, N. C, I noticed thrust out of the wet sand, a conioally pointed head which instantly 

 disappeared. Throwing myself down, I immediately began with my bare hands to dig the 

 wet sand where I had seen the head. The animal went down tail first, and so rapidly that I 

 began to despair of capturing it. Presently, however, when I had dug below water level, this 

 little fish was brought out in a great double handful of sand. When taken into the laboratory 

 and put into an aquarium of running salt water, after a few struggles it turned on its side and so 

 retnained, seemingly in considerable distress, being unable to maintain itself in the normal 

 position by its delicate filament-like ventral fins which are inframandibular in position. I 

 then filled a tall glass jar some eight inches deep with fine sand, introduced into it the 

 little fish and placed it under a salt water jet. At first the fish lay quiescent on the sand, but 

 when I returned some hours later, it had burrowed into and was never again seen on top of 

 the sand. Frequently, however, the little fish could be seen with its body half outlined against 

 the glass side of the aquarium. There could then be seen slow undulation of the long dorsal 

 and anal fins together with slight bendings of the body, both motions beginning at the head 

 and progressing towards the tail. Evidently by this means a current of water was maintained 

 through the gill-chambers. On the surface of the sand, small conical half-filled depressions 

 could be found. These seemed to have been formed by the fish either in burrowing into the 

 sand or in drawing water over the gills. However, I did not notice any distinct currents 

 through these depressions and can not positively say that they were excurrent and incurrent 

 openings. 



Family GADID^. The Cods. 



The fishes of this numerous and important family are found chiefly in cold 

 waters, and support extensive fisheries in the north temperate and arctic regions. 

 Body moderately or considerably elongated, mouth large, terminal, and well 

 provided with small teeth in bands; chin with a barbel; gill-arches 4, gill-openings 

 wide, gill-membranes usually free from isthmus; pseudobrancHse absent; 

 scales very small, cycloid; pyloric coeca numerous in most genera; air-bladder 

 well developed; no spines in fins, dorsal fin long and either single or divided into 

 2 or 3 separate parts; anal fin long, and either single or double; caudal fin promi- 

 nent, sometimes distinct, sometimes joined to dorsal and anal; ventral fins 

 jugular and consisting of 1 to 8 rays. There are about 25 genera and several 

 hundred species; the American members of the family include such well known 

 fish as the cod, the pollock, the hake, the cusk, and the fresh-water ling. The 

 family is only sparingly represented in North Carolina, although 1 of the species 



*Dr. Theodore GUI, in a note prefatory to Dr. Gudger's, quotes a brief observation on this species by 

 Professor Verrill, who "dug two specimens out of the sand near low-water marls, where they burrowed to 

 the depth of a foot or more. When placed upon moist sand, they burrowed into it tail foremost with sur- 

 prising rapidity, disappearing in an instant" 



