260 NATURAL HISTOEY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



This species reaches a length of more than two feet, and a weight of more than ten pounds, 

 being by far the largest member of its family on the Pacific coast. It is found from San Diego to 

 Victoria, but is more abundant aboiit Monterey and San Francisco than either northward or south- 

 ward. It inhabits moderate depths, and is taken in considerable numbers with gill-nets and hooks. 

 It feeds upon Crustacea and small flsb. Its value is very small, the flesh being tough and flavorless, 

 and it is rarely sent to the market.when good fish are abundant. 



83. ROSE FISH OE RED PERCH— SEBASTES MARINUS. 



Although upon the west coast of North America the fishes of the family (ScorpcBnidm) are among 

 the most important, there are only four species on the Atlantic coast of North America ; 'of these, 

 two have been discovered within the past year, and the others, though well known and very widely 

 distributed, are not of great importance. The Eose-fish, Sebastes marinus, is conspicuous and unique 

 among cold-water fishes by its brilliant scarlet color; it is also known as "Eed Pferch,"' "Norway 

 Haddock," "Hemdurgan," and "Snapper," as "Bream" in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and called 

 " John Dory" in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is found also in Northern Europe, where it has been 

 recorded as far south as Newcastle, in Northern England, latituiie 55°,^ and it has also been 

 found in Aberdeen and Berwick, and in Zetland, where it is called "Bergylt" and "Norway 

 Haddock." 



On the eastern side of the North Sea the species has not been seen south of G-otheiiborg, lati- 

 tude 58°, but is said to be abundant along the entire western coast of Norway to the North Cape 

 and Varenger Fjord in East Finmark, while Malmgren records it from Baren Island, and Scoresby 

 found it at Spitzbergen, latitude 80°. In Iceland it is abundant, and in Davis' Straits, at least as 

 far north as Disco, where it is found associated with the halibut, and is said to constitute a liberal 

 •share of its food. In Eastern Labrador, about Newfoundland, and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, 

 it is abundant, and also along the shores of Nova Scotia and in the Bay of Fundy. In these 

 northern regions the Eose-fish prefers shallow water, and may be taken in the greatest abundance 

 in the bays and around the wharves in company with the sculpins and the cunner or blue perch. 

 On the coast of the United States,, south of the Bay of Fundy, they are rarely seen near the shore, 

 but have been found in deep water in all parts of the Gulf of Maine and Massachusetts Bay, 

 and also abundantly south of O^pe Cod. In the fall of 1880 the United States Fish Commission 

 obtained greai; quantities of them, young and old. DeKay included this fish in his New York list, 

 stating, however, that it was very rare in those waters. He remarks that " the coast of New York 

 is probably its extreme southern limit." 



Of late years none have been taken south of the locality already mentioned, which was in 

 water from one to three hundred fathoms in depth, at the inner edge of the Gulf Stream, from fifty 

 Jto one hundred miles southwest of Newport, and about the same distance east of Sandy Hook. 

 A hundred or two hundred miles farther south it is replaced by a fish resembling it somewhat in 

 form and color, Soorpcena dactyloptera De la Eoche, discovered by the Fish Commission during 

 the past year, and by Scorpcma Stearnsi, detected at Pensacola by Silas Stearns, and at Charles- 

 ton by 0. H. Gilbert. 



It may fairly be said that the Eose-fish, as a shore species, is not known south of parallel 42°, 

 which is 13° south of its transatlantic limit. When the deep waters of Southern Europe have 

 been as cartefuUy explored as those of the United States, it is probable that the range of this fish 

 will be extended considerably farther to the'south. 



'In distinction from the "blue perch" or "cunner" {CtenolahrM adspersus), which it resembles in form, but not 

 >in color. 



*GttNTHEK; Cat. Fishes Brit. Mus. 2, p. 96. 



