CLASS PISCES. 139 



Cottus gobio, Lin., Bl. 39. i. 2. 



A small fish, four or five inches long, blackish. 



The salt water species are more spiny : when irri- 

 tated they swell out the head. There are two on our 

 coasts, called sea scorpion, &c. 



The one, 



Cottus scorpius, L. 

 Has three spines to the preoperculum. The other, 



C. Bubalis, Euphrasen, Nov. Mem. de Stock, vii. 95. 



Has four spines, the first of which is very long. 



In the Baltic there is a third species, distinguished 

 by four bony tuberosities, looking as if carious on the 

 cranium, (C. quadricornis, Bl. 108.) 



There are some much larger species in America and 

 in the North Pacific Ocean \ 



This last sea produces also a small species, but 

 whose singular forms render it worthy of remark. 

 It is 



Cottus diceraus, Pale. Synanceia cervus, Tiles. Mem. de l'Ac. 

 de Petersb. iii. 1811, p. 278. 



In which the first spine of the preoperculum, almost 



1 C. Virginianus, Will. x. 15., or Octodecim spinosus, Mitch., 

 New York Trans, iv. 380. C. ipohjacanthocephalus, Pall. Zoog. 

 Ross, &c. 



