Fig. 484.—Mastacembelus ellipsifer Boulenger. Congo River. (After Boulenger.)
Mastacembelus armatus is a common species of India and China. In Rhynchobdella the nasal appendage or proboscis, conspicuous in Mastacembelus, is still more developed. Rhynchobdella aculeata is common in India.
Order Anacanthini.—We may separate from the other jugular fishes the great group of codfishes and their allies, retaining the name Anacanthini (ἄνακανθος, without spine) suggested by Johannes Müller. In this group the hypercoracoid is without foramen, the fenestra lying between this bone and the hypocoracoid below it. The tail is isocercal, the vertebræ in a right line and progressively smaller backward, sometimes degenerate or whip-like (leptocercal) at tip. Other characters are shown in the structure of the skull. There are no spines in any of the fins; the ventrals are jugular, the scales generally small, and the coloration dull or brownish. The numerous species live chiefly in the northern seas, some of them descending to great depths. The resemblance of these fishes to some of the Blennioid group is very strongly marked, but these likenesses seem analogical only and not indicative of true affinity. The codfishes probably represent an early offshoot from the ancestors of the spiny-rayed fishes, and their line of evolution is unknown, possibly from Ganoid types. Among recent fishes there is nothing structurally nearer than the Nototheniidæ and Brotulidæ, but the line of descent must branch off much farther back than either of these. For the present, therefore, we may regard the codfishes and their allies (Anacanthini) as a distinct order.
Fig. 485.—Codfish, Gadus callarias L. Eastport, Me.
The Codfishes: Gadidæ.—The chief family is that of the Gadidæ, or codfishes. These are characterized by a general resemblance to the common codfish, Gadus callarias. This is one of the best known of fishes, found everywhere on the shores of the North Atlantic, and the subject of economic fisheries of the greatest importance. Its flesh is white, flaky, rather tasteless, but takes salt readily, and is peculiarly well adapted for drying. The average size of the codfish is about ten pounds, but Captain Nathaniel Atwood of Provincetown records one with the weight of 160 pounds.
According to Dr. Goode:
"In the western Atlantic the species occurs in the winter in considerable abundance as far south as the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, latitude 37°, and stragglers have been observed about Ocracoke Inlet. The southern limits of the species may be safely considered to be Cape Hatteras, in latitude 35° 10´. Along the coast of New England, the Middle States, and British North America, and upon all the off-shore banks of this region, cod are found usually in great abundance, during part of the year at least. They have been observed also in the Gulf of Bothnia, latitude 70° to 75°, and in the southeastern part of Baffin's Land to the northward of Cumberland Sound, and it is more than probable that they occur in the waters of the Arctic Sea to the north of the American continent, or away around to Bering Strait."
Dr. Gill says: