HISTORY OF THE PISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 265 



It feeds upon the Molliisca and Testacea, and the flesh of the young fish is sweet and 

 very palatable. The following shells I have found in its stomach: Buceinum tmdatmn^ 

 Fusiis Cornells and jjlenrotomarms and turricula^ Turbo infatm and ohscunis^ Natka 

 triseriata and consolidata^ Bulla fritacea, Tellimi sordida^ Nucula miniita^ Trichotropis 

 horealiSj Turritella erosa, Yeans gemma^ Pecten Islandicus ; and a species of Pecfimrrki, 



It is seldom met with in Boston market ; occasionallyj how^eyer, it is brought in by 

 the cod-fishers of Massachusetts Bay, by whom it is known as the Ling and Conger-Eel 



Captain Atwood informs me that it is not taken so often at Provincetown of late 

 years as formerly. 



My son observed it on the coast of Labrador in 1849. 



Labrador, H. E» Stoeer. New Hampshire, Peck. Maine, Massachusetts, Stoeee- 

 New York, Mitchill, Cuviee, Dekat. 



GENUS V. ANAEEHICAS, Lin. 



Head smooth, rounded, muzzle obtuse ; body elongated, covered with minute scales ; 

 dorsal and anal fins long, distinct from the caudal ; no ventral fins. Teeth of two 

 kinds ; those in front elongated, curved, pointed ; the others on the vomer, as also on 

 the jaws, truncated or slightly rounded; branchiostegous rays, six. 



Aistarehicas vomerinus, Agassk^ MS. 



The Amerkan Wolf-fish. 



(Plate XYIIT. Fig. L f ]' f ^^f ^^ ^'^^^ . . ) 

 \ I 1, 0, teeth as seen m front./ 



Anarrhicas lupus^ Sea- Wolfj Mitchill, Amer. Moatli. Mag., r. p. 242. 



Storeb, Eeport, p. 69. 



Dekat, Beport, p. 158, pi. 16, fig. 43. 



Storee, Mem. Amer. Acad., New Series, ii. p. 376. 

 " Synopsis, p. 124. 

 Anarrhicas vomerinus^ AoASSiz, MS. 



Color. Of a purplish brown, with ten or twelve transverse nearly black bars pass- 

 ing from the abdomen high upon the dorsal fin. Beneath lighter. One large sped'* 

 men was of a light flesh-color, thickly spotted with moderately sized black ocelli. 

 Eays of dorsal black, intervening membrane dark gray or slate ; pectorals and aaal 

 leaden-gray ; caudal slate-color, reddish at extremity* 



Description. Body elongated, subcylindrical, compressed posterxoiiy, covered with an 

 extremely viscid secretion. Head large, compressed at sides, rounded, slightly flattened 

 above. Length of head more than one fourth the entire length of the body. Rows 



VOL. V. NEW SEBIES. 37 



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