242 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



Phycides. — Gadus tenuis, Slender cod, Mitch. ; G. punctatus, Spotted cod, 

 Mitch. ; Blennius chuss, Schoepf, Encheliopus Americanus, Schn., Gadus 

 longipes, Mitch. ; Raniceps hlennoides, Garter fish, Smith. 



Tilesius mentions gadus macrocephalus , gracilis, morrhua, and luscus, as in- 

 habitants of the seas of Kamtschatka, but the members of this family that frequent 

 the north-west coast of America are almost totally unknown. Dixon informs us 

 that he took hake in Norfolk Sound, which proves nothing more than that the fish 

 which he so calls resembles a merluccius. 



[93.] 1. Gadus morrhua. (Auct.) Common Cod-fish. 



Family, Gadoideae. Cuv. Genus, Gadus. Linn. Sub-genus, Morrhua. Cuv. 

 Morrhua vulgaris (maxima asellorum species). Belon, p. 121. An. 1551. 

 Gadus dorso tripterygio, ore cirrato, Cauda sequali fere cum radio primo spinoso. Artedi. 

 Gadus morrhua. Fabric, Fauna Grcenl., p. 146, No. 102. Mitch., Fish of New York, 



i., p. 367, No. 1. Smith, An. of Massach., p. 16. An. 1835. Ross, Captain J. C, 



App f , p. xlviii. An. 1835. 

 Common Cod. Penn., Arct. Zool., ii., p. 11 4, SuppL, No. 87. 

 Saraudlirksoak, or Ekalluarksoak. Greenlandeks. Keeling. Scots. 



The sub-genus Morrhua is characterised by the presence of three dorsals, two 

 anals, and a barbel at the extremity of the lower jaw. It contains many species. 

 The Common cod-fish is probably an inhabitant of all the northern seas, down to 

 the 41st parallel. It abounds in the North Atlantic, where it frequents sand- 

 banks lying from twenty to eighty fathoms under water. Pennant is of opinion 

 that its proper range is between the 66th and 50th parallels of latitude, those 

 caught north and south of these degrees being either few in quantity or bad in 

 quality. " The great rendezvous," says he, " of the cod-fish is on the banks which 

 lie off the coasts of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and New England ; 

 few are taken north of Iceland, but on the south and west coast they abound, and 

 they again swarm off Norway, in the Baltic, and off the Orkneys and Hebrides." 

 It does not exist in the Mediterranean. Dr. Mitchill states the callarias to be the 

 Common cod of New York, while the morrhua, or " Bank cod " as he calls it, is 

 brought to the market of that city from Nantucket, and the coast beyond, between 

 November and April only, the summer temperature of the United States' waters 

 being, in his opinion, sufficient to kill it. Cod-fish, of excellent quality, are found 

 in the estuary of the St. Lawrence, pretty high up. Fabricius says that the mor- 

 rhua is less common on the Greenland coast than the callarias ; but Captain James 



