COD , POLLOCK , HADDOCK AND HAKE . 
359 
Cusk is very local in its habits and rarely changes from one locality to 
another. 
The food of the Cusk doubtless consist chiefly of mollusks and small 
crustaceans. 
Concerning its spawning habits nothing is known, except that, accord¬ 
ing to Faber, it breeds in April and May on the coast of West and South 
Ireland. 
The Cusk is considered a very excellent fish, especially for boiling, but 
there is a very limited demand for it, and most of those which are taken 
are salted. On account of their low prices .fishermen shun them, and they 
are hardly in better favor than dogfish. In the spring of 1878 they were 
worth in Gloucester from twenty to fifty cents per hundred, and in August 
of the same year about one dollar per hundred. One of the peculiar 
habits of the Cusks renders their capture difficult, and frequently causes the 
destruction of the fishing-tackle ; it is said that after they have taken the 
hook they curl their tails round the angles of the rock and cling to them 
with such strength that it is impossible to dislodge them. Fishermen say 
that when they are brought to the surface the skin rises from the body in 
great blisters. This they regard as a favorable sign, as showing that the 
fish are “ thrifty,” or healthy. The name “Tusk,” used for this fish in 
Newfoundland, is now never used in the United States, although it seems 
to have been in use a century ago, a well-known fishing ground in the 
Gulf of Maine being known as the “ Tusk Rock.” 
The two species which have commercial value being P. chuss and P. 
tenuis. These species are very similar in appearance, and it is with diffi¬ 
culty that they can be distinguished from each other by the trained eye of 
the zoologist. The most tangible distinction may be found in the num¬ 
ber of scales, which are much smaller in P. tenuis , there being from one 
hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and forty oblique rows between the 
bronchial opening and the root of the caudal fin, while there are about 
twelve rows between the lateral line and the region of the first dorsal. In 
P. chuss there are only one hundred rows in the lateral line and nine rows 
above the lateral line ; in the former the ventral does not ordinarily reach 
quite to the vent, in the latter it extends beyond the vent. This char¬ 
acter, however, cannot always be relied upon. 
Our Hakes are all different from the Forked Beard, P. blennioides , of 
Great Britain, sometimes called the Hake’s Dame, which is a member of 
