GADID.E. MERLUCI US. 



319 



mentions, one has the tail truncated or slightly rounded, 

 while in the other it is, as he says, bifid : we reconcile 

 this difference by supposing that his Gadus Lepidion (our 

 Lepidion Rissoii) connects with Tilesia; and that his 

 Gadus Moro (our Lepidion Moro), which has the " cauda 

 bifida" prepares the way to the last type, or Cephus. 

 The only species yet discovered of this extraordinary 

 type is the Gadus macrocephalus of Tilesius (fig. 72.) : 



the head is so enormously large, that it is nearly half 

 the length of the whole fish, and is much thicker than 

 any part of the body ; the crown also is depressed ; and 

 the whole fish immediately gives the idea of a gigantic 

 Raniceps ; but having the three dorsals, and all the 

 other points of structure of the true cods, except that 

 the tail is truncate, and the gills covered with scales. 



(268.) The Merlucince are less numerous in species, 

 and in the variation of their forms ; and thus we know 

 of only three genera. To the first of these, named by 

 Rafinesque Merlucius*, after the Gadus Merlucius 

 of Linnaeus, belongs the common hake, peculiar to 

 northern seas, with which the Mediterranean hake (M. 

 sinuatus §w.,fig. 73.), now for the first time described, 



* Carattari, &c. Palermo, 1810. 



