254 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[102.] 1. Macrourus rupestris. (Bloch.) Rock Grenadier. 



Family, Gadoideis akfinis. Cuv. Genus, Macrourus. Bi.och. 

 Coryphsena rupestris. Fabricius, Fauna Groenl., p. 154. No. 111. 

 Macrourus rupestris. Schn., Bloch, p. 103, t. 26. 

 " Lepidoleprus coelorhynchus. Risso, pi. vii., f. 22." 

 Ingmingoak. Greenlanders. 



This fish exists in the bays of south Greenland, the European Atlantic, and 

 Mediterranean. It inhabits great depths of water, and is fished for with a long 

 line. When drawn to the surface its body is distended with air, and it emits a 

 grunting sound like the gurnard. Its flesh is prized by the Greenlanders. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Compiled from Fabricius, Schneider, and Cuvier. 



Form. — Body oblong, thick anteriorly, slender posteriorly. Head large, depressed with a 

 flat immoveable snout, formed by the union of the sub-orbitar and nasal bones, projecting over 

 the mouth. Eyes large and prominent. GUI-openings wide. Mouth ample. Jaws move- 

 able as usual, and armed with very fine short teeth in five rows. Tongue and palate smooth. 

 Scales silvery, hard, and armed on the head and forepart of the body with several longitudinal 

 serrated ridges, on the posterior parts with only one ridge : the gill-membranes and fins are 

 alone free of scales. Lateral line straight and near the back. Anus in the anterior third part, 

 of the fish. Fins pointed. The second dorsal and anal, both very long, unite to form the 

 accumulated caudal: first dorsal short and high. A difference in the number of the second 

 dorsal and anal rays, as given by Fabricius and Schneider, has evidently originated in the 

 latter enumerating among the rays of these two fins those of the caudal. 



Fins.— Br. 6 ; P 18 ; V. 8 ; D. 11—112; ,4. 112; C. — . Fabricius. 

 7; 19; 7; 1/11—124; 148; 272. Schneider. 



