Pareioplitae, or Mailed-cheek Fishes 447 



varied are the sculpins of the North Pacific, Myoxocephalus 

 polyacanthocephalus being the best known and most widely 

 diffused. Oncocottus quadricornis is the long-horned sculpin of 

 the Arctic Europe, entering the lakes of Russia and British 



FIG. 393. 18-spined Sculpin, Myoxocephalus octodecimspinosus (Mitchill). 

 Beasley Point, N. J. 



America. Triglopsis thompsoni of the depths in our own Great 

 Lakes seems to be a dwarfed and degenerate descendant of 

 Oncocottus. 



The genus Zesticelus contains small soft-bodied sculpins from 

 the depths of the North Pacific. Zesticelus profundorum was 



FIG. 394. Oncocottus quadricornis (L.). St. Michael, Alaska. 



taken in 664 fathoms off Bogoslof Island and Zesticelus bathybins 

 off Japan. In this genus the body is very soft and the skeleton 

 feeble, the result of deep-sea life. Another deep-water genus less 

 degraded is Cottunculus, from which by gradual loss of fins the 

 still more degraded Psychrolutes (paradoxus] and Gilbertidia 

 (sigolutes] are perhaps descended. In sculpins of this type the 

 liparids, or sea-snails, may have had their origin. Among the 



