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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
taken during the winter months, their size fits in so well with the subsequent collections that it 
seems safe to assume that all the fish listed in the foregoing table belong to the same year class. 
Assuming, then, that Welsh's discovery of spawning fish in December may be interpreted as restrict- 
ing the spawning period to the winter, it seems reasonable to conclude that 1-year-old fish have a 
length of approximately 3 inches. 
This hake, unlike U. chuss, was taken twice (between April 10 and 24, 1922) alongshore off 
Buckroe Beach and the lower York River in collecting seines. It was taken in the trawl at a depth 
of 38 to 144 feet, as follows: Two fish in January, two in March, many in April, and several in May. 
During other months it did not appear in the collections. This fish was present in collections 
made from Cape Henry to Bloody Point, near Annapolis. The majority of the fish, however, 
were taken south of the mouth of the Potomac River. 
It appears, therefore, that most of the young (yearlings) enter the bay by the end of March 
or early in April, probably depending on the water temperature, and that they leave toward the 
end of May when the water begins to get warm. Larger fish over 8 inches in length are very scarce 
in the bay, and only occasionally one is taken either in the late fall or the spring in pound nets set 
in the lower part of the bay. 
This fish is nowhere abundant (in comparison with other hakes), and this, together with its 
small size, makes it of very slight commercial importance. Certainly in Chesapeake Bay its value 
is negligible, although in some localities it serves as a source of food supply for other fishes. 
The largest size attained by the spotted hake is about 16 inches, but the largest observed in 
the Chesapeake was only 12)4 inches long. 
Habitat . — Nova Scotia to South Carolina; rare north of Cape Cod and south of Virginia. 
Chesapeake localities. — (a) Previous record: Off Kent Island, Md. (6) Specimens in collec- 
tion: From many localities, from Annapolis to the mouth of the bay, mostly taken at depths of 
38 to 144 feet; occasional along the immediate shores. 
Family XXXVIII.-MERLUCCIID^. The hakes 
Body moderately elongate; head elongate, depressed, shaped as in the pikes, its upper surface 
with a triangular excavated area; no barbels; suborbital bones moderate; dorsal fins 2, the first 
one short, the second long, consisting of soft rays only; tail isocercal; ventral fins subjugular, well 
developed. This family consists of a single genus with about four species, a single one of which 
comes within the scope of the present work. 
57. Genus MERLUCCIUS Rafmesque. Hakes 
Body elongate; head slender, its upper surface with well-defined ridges, converging backward 
into a low occipital crest; snout long, depressed; eye rather large; edge of opercle free; mouth large, 
oblique; maxillary reaching opposite eye; lower jaw projecting; sharp teeth present on the jaws 
and vomer; branchiostegals 7; gill membranes not united; scales small, deciduous; two well- 
separated dorsal fins, the first short, the second deeply emarginate; anal similar to the second 
dorsal; ventral fins normal, well developed. 
76. Merluccius bilinearis (Mitchill). Silver hake; Whiting; “Winter trout.” 
Stomodon bilinearis Mitchill, Rept., Fishes, New York, 1814, p. 7; New York. 
Merluccius bilinearis Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2530. 
Head 3.55 to 3.65; depth 4.6 to 5.45; D. 12 to 14 — 40 or 41; scales about 105. Body elongate, 
compressed; caudal peduncle slender; head rather long and low, flat above, with rather prominent 
ridges; snout moderately broad, 2.65 to 3 in head; eye, 3.35 to 4.7; interorbital 3.85 to 4.2; mouth 
large, slightly oblique; maxillary reaching to or a little beyond middle of eye, 1.8 to 2 in head; 
teeth in the jaws sharp, recurved, in 2 or 3 irregular series, similar teeth present on the vomer; gill 
rakers slender, about 12 on lower limb of first arch; lateral line distinct; scales rather larger than 
in related species, deciduous; dorsal fins 2, well separated, composed of soft rays only, the base of the 
first contained about 3.5 times in the base of the second, its origin over base of pectorals; the second 
dorsal with longer rays anteriorly and posteriorly than in middle portion of its length; caudal fin 
nearly straight in the young, somewhat emarginate in the adult; anal fin similar to the second dorsal 
