360 AMERICAN FISHES. 
the same genus.* Owing to their great similarity, Phycis c/mss and P. 
tenuis , are usually known indifferently by the name “ Hake the former, 
however, is sometimes called the Old English Hake, and the other, Phycis 
tenuis , the Squirrel Hake or White Hake. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
and the Bay of Chaleur, and also south of Cape Cod, they are invariably 
called Ling. There has been much confusion both in the names and 
descriptions applied to them by fishermen and ichthyologists. Their geo¬ 
graphical range appears to be essentially the same. The young of one or 
both species are frequently taken swimming at the surface, on the southern 
coast of New England, in midsummer, and numerous individuals have been 
found off Block Island and Watch Hill, seeking shelter between the valves 
of a large species of scallop, Pectcn tenuicostatus; the majority appear to 
belong to the species of P. chuss . 
The two species are frequently taken by the cod-fishermen, on the 
shoals south of Cape Cod, but they are there considered to be of but little 
value. They are more or less abundant in Massachusetts Bay, in the Bay 
of Fundy and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Large specimens of one or 
both species have been taken at a depth of three hundred fathoms as far 
south as Virginia. 
The Hakes appear to be bottom-loving fishes, and rarely change locality. 
They feed on crustaceans, and occasionally indulge in a fish diet. One 
taken at Gloucester in July, 1878, had a menhaden in its stomach. 
It is believed that they spawn throughout the summer, for the young 
fish are found during all the summer months, while specimens taken at the 
depth of thirty-seven fathoms August 18, 1878, off Ipswich, at a tempera¬ 
ture of 41 0 F., contained well-developed ova, and were apparently ready 
to spawn. 
* The Hake of Europe is a different fish, more closely related to the Silver Hake or Whiting of the New 
England coast, Merlucius bilinearis. 
