FISHES—GADIUAE-—HOMALOPOMUS. 
143 
sides and belly are lighter, often of a silvery white tint. The dorsals, caudal, and posterior 
anal, often exhibit a darkish hue, caused by the accumulation of minute dark reddish dots. 
The anterior anal, the ventrals, and the pectorals, are yellowish and unicolor. 
References to the figures. —Plate XLa, fig. 5, represents, size of life, Morrliua proximo, , from 
the Bay of San Francisco, California. Fig. 6 is a section of the anterior portion of the body. 
Fig. 7, a scale from the dorsal region. Fig. 8, a scale from the abdominal region. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
No. of 
specs 
Sex and 
age. 
Locality. 
When col¬ 
lected. 
Whence obtained. 
Nature of 
specimens. 
Collected by— 
524 
3 
Adult _ _ 
San Francisco, Cal .... 
1853 
Lt. A. W. Whipple. 
Alcoholic. 
Dr. Kennedy_ 
525 
5 
_do._. 
.._do_ 
1853 
Lt. R. S. Williamson_ 
....do_ 
Dr. Heermann_ 
526 
5 
—do_ 
Presidio, Cal_ 
1853 
Lt. Wm. P. Trowbridge_ 
_do_ 
Lt. Trowbridge_ 
527 
5 
_do_ 
_do_„ 
1853 
_do_ 
_do_ 
_do_ 
528 
1 
_do_ 
Cape Flattery, W. T_ 
1854 
HOMALOPOMUS, Girard. 
Gen. Char. —General aspect of head and body elongated. Mouth large; lower jaw longest, and protruding beyond the 
upper. No barbel to the chin. Conical and acute teeth upon the premaxillaries (upper jaw) and dentaries (lower jaw). Similar 
teeth upon the front of the vomer along its external margin. Palatine bones toothless. Tongue smooth. Gill apertures very 
wide, and continuous under the head. Branchiostegals, seven on either side. Three dorsal fins ; second and third contiguous. 
Two anal fins contiguous. Ventrals composed of seven rays. Upper surface of head and opercular apparatus covered with 
minute scales. Cheeks smooth and scaleless. Scales covering the body small, or of moderate development, cycloid in structure. 
Syn. — Homalopomus, Grd. in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. VIII, 1856, 132. 
The specimen upon which the genus Homalopomus was based happening to have its fins 
mutilated was the cause of the error which we now rectify. Half broken in the first and second 
dorsals, the remaining portion, which is unarticulated, suggested the idea that they were spiny 
rays, and the union, or rather the contiguity of the second and third dorsal fins, with a 
depression in the outline, was supposed analogous to what is observed in Heterostichus , for we 
were likewise deceived by the structure of the anal fins, which, being contiguous, and the rays 
broken upon their extremities, the anterior one appeared as if composed of spiny rays. The 
structure of the ventrals ought to have cautioned us against that mistake, hut at that time we 
had no confidence in those fins as affording exclusively safe characters of classification. 
The natural affinities of the genus Homalopomus are intermediate between Herlangus and 
Merlucius, the dorsal and anal fins being constructed upon the pattern observed in Merlangus, 
whilst the ventral fins are identical in structure with those of Merlucius. Had we not framed 
this genus under misapprehended affinities we would have placed the following species in the 
genus Merlangus or Merlucius , it was immaterial where, and await further information upon the 
fishes of the North Pacific ocean. 
We have received one specimen from Dr. Ayres of his Merlangus produclus, collected in the 
Bay of San Francisco, California. The species is very closely allied to Homalopomus trowhridgii, 
and evidently belongs to the same genus, whether Merlangus, Merlucius, or Homalopomus ; and 
if identical with H. trowhridgii, the specific name of productus will have to be restored to it as 
