FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



447 



ing point of salt water. We have never heard of 

 one taken in brackish water, at least on our side of 

 the Atlantic. It is a sluggish fish, often to be seen 

 lying motionless, and as a rule, it hugs the bottom 

 so closely that it is hard to tempt one to rise as 

 much as a few feet by dangling a bait over it. 

 Neither does it come to the surface voluntarily, 

 though the surface may drop to the sculpin on the 

 ebbing tide. 



Sculpins usually swim slowly with undulating 

 motion, spreading their great pectoral fins like 

 bat's wings. As a rule, they move only a little 

 way when disturbed, but on occasion they can 

 dart ahead with folded "wings." 



They are among the most voracious fishes, 

 feeding chiefly on crustaceans, particularly on 

 crabs, of which they are often full, on shrimps, sea 

 urchins, and worms; on the fry of various other 

 fishes; rarely on shellfish. And they are eager 

 scavengers of any kind of refuse, congregating 

 about fish wharves and lobster cars to feast on the 

 debris. Like all sculpins they bite on any bait, 

 and so greedily that we have caught one time and 

 again, thrown it back, and seen it bite again 

 almost as soon as fresh bait reached bottom. 



The shorthorn has been described as hiding in 

 dark crevices or among weeds by day, to emerge at 

 night. This, however, has not been our ex- 

 perience, nor did Gill 78 find it doing so at Grand 

 Manan. 



This fish, like the longhorn sculpin, grunts or 

 gurgles when drawn out of the water, particularly 

 when handled, and it is also known to grunt in the 

 water. 



We must turn to European sources for the 

 breeding habits of this sculpin, little attention 

 having been paid to this phase of its life by Ameri- 

 can ichthyologists. 77 The spawning season is 

 from November to February, both about Woods 

 Hole and in north European waters, with the chief 

 egg production in December, which no doubt 

 applies equally to the Gulf of Maine. At this 

 season the adult sculpins have been described as 

 gathering in schools on sandy or weedy bottom, 

 with the females greatly outnumbering the males. 



Discussion has centered about the manner in 

 which the eggs are fertilized, it being generally 

 agreed that this takes place externally as a rule, 



but that they may be fertilized within the body of 

 the mother in some parts of the Baltic Sea. In 

 either case, the eggs sink 78 and stick together in 

 irregular spongy masses through which the water 

 circulates, and which retain considerable moisture 

 even if they are left bare by the ebbing tide, as 

 often happens. These egg masses are deposited 

 on sandy bottoms, in pools in the rocks, among 

 seaweeds, or in any crevice or hollow, in a tin can, 

 for instance, or in an old shoe. Sometimes the 

 male makes a nest of seaweed and pebbles, while 

 he has been described as sometimes clasping the 

 egg mass with his pectoral and ventral fins, and 

 he has been photographed so employed. 79 



The eggs are of varying shades of red or yellow, 

 1.5 to 2 mm. in diameter. Incubation is so slow 

 (occupying 4 to 12 weeks, according to tempera- 

 ture) that egg masses with advanced embryos 

 have often been found as late in the spring as 

 April or even May. Newly hatched larvae are 

 about 7 to 8 mm. long. In a month they are 10 

 mm. long and the yolk sac has been absorbed. 

 The young larvae soon rise to the surface, where 

 quantities of them have been taken in tow nets in 

 British waters in March, April, and May. By 

 May and June some have grown to a length of 

 22 to 25 mm. They abandon their drifting life 

 at about this size, or soon after, for the bottom, 

 and they may be 38 mm. long by July, showing 

 all the distinctive characters of the adult. 80 This 

 timetable, compiled from European sources, prob- 

 ably applies equally to the Gulf of Maine, for 

 larvae are found as early as February in the Bay 

 of Fund\* and thereafter throughout the spring. 81 



The subsequent rate of growth is not definitely 

 known. But it is probable that this sculpin is 

 2 or 3 inches long bj* the end of its first summer, 

 for we have taken a few 2-inch fish in late June on 

 Nantucket Shoals, and 2- to 3%-inch fish in late 

 September off Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Most 

 of them, it seems, do not mature sexuahV until 

 they are at least 6 inches long. 



General range. — One or another race of this wide 

 ranging fish is known from Great Britain north- 

 ward along the coasts of Europe; in Arctic seas 



»• Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 47, 1905, p. 352. 



" Gill (Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 47, 1905, p. 352) givos a summary ot 

 its life history. 



78 Buoyant eggs taken in the tow net (Agassiz, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 

 Sci., vol. 17, 1882, pi. 3) belonged to some other fish. 



'• Ehrenbaum, Wiss. Meerosuntersuchungen, Helgoland, Neue Folge, vol. 

 6, 1904, pi. 8. 



» Mcintosh and Masterman, Life-Histories of British Marine Food-Fishes, 

 1897, p. 129. 



•' Huntsman, Contrib. Canadian Biol. (1921) 1922, p 64. 



