FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



441 



Color. — Preserved specimens are mottled with 

 dark and pale brown, sometimes with a reddish 

 tinge, and most of them have a blotch at the 

 base of the caudal fin. All the fins are grayish or 

 blackish, with oblique or vertical pale cross bands. 



Size. — This is one of the smallest of sculpins, 

 growing to a length of only about 4 inches. 



General range. — This is a cold-water fish known 

 from Labrador and the west coast of Greenland to 

 Cape Cod in the western Atlantic; also in the 

 littoral waters of arctic Europe, of Siberia, and 

 of Greenland. 60 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This sculpin, 

 formerly thought to be rare in the Gulf of Maine, 

 is now known to be generally distributed there in 

 depths greater than 20 to 30 fathoms. It was 

 dredged in numbers in the deeper parts of Massa- 

 chusetts Bay many years ago. And we have 

 since taken it repeatedly near Mount Desert; off 

 Cape Elizabeth; in the trough between Jeffreys 

 Ledge and the coast; around Cashes Ledge; along 

 the northern slopes of Georges Bank; in the south- 

 eastern part of the basin of the Gulf; and at the 

 entrance to the deep gully between Georges and 

 Browns Banks, in depths ranging from 20 to 150 

 fathoms. Individual trawl hauls have yielded up 

 to 6 or 8 specimens, both on hard bottom and 

 on soft. 



To the eastward and northward it has been 

 taken off Cape Sable; at a number of places off 

 the outer coast of Nova Scotia; and on the New- 

 foundland Banks, at depths of 50 to 190 fathoms. 61 



M After examining specimens from New England waters and comparing 

 them with published drawings of European flsh, we can find no significant 

 differences between the hook-cared sculpins of the two sides of the Atlantic. 



* For localities of record off outer Nova Scotia and on the Newfoundland 

 Banks, see Ooode and Bean, Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. 30, 1S95, p. 

 268; also Reports, Newfoundland Fishery Research Commission, Vol. 1, 

 No. 4, 1932, p. 108; vol. 2, No. 1, 1933, p. 125. 



It is common enough in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 for Huntsman to have classed it as a characteristic 

 inhabitant of the icy intermediate water layer on 

 the Banks, 62 while Vladykov and Tremblay 63 

 have reported it from the estuary of the St. 

 Lawrence Eiver near Trois Pistoles; it has been 

 reported from Hamilton Inlet on the outer coast 

 of Labrador; 64 and doubtless it will be found 

 farther north, when the fish fauna of the outer 

 Labrador coast has been explored more thoroughly, 

 for it is known from West Greenland. 



Presumably, it is resident in small numbers 

 wherever found, sculpins not being migrator} 7 , but 

 nothing whatever is known of its way of life. 



Mailed sculpin Triglops ommatistius Gilbert 

 1913 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1923, Triglops 

 pingeli (Reinhardt), 1832, in part. 



Gilbert, Proceedings, U. S. National Museum, Vol. 44, 

 1913, p. 465. 



Description. — The most distinctive feature of 

 this sculpin, apart from its very long anal fin, is 

 that it has a row of about 45 broad plate-like scales 

 along its lateral line on each side, with smaller 

 spiny scales below the dorsal fins, while the skin of 

 the sides lower down is gathered in obliquely trans- 

 verse folds. The body, too, is more tapering than 

 that of our other sculpins, the caudal peduncle 

 more slender, and the tail fin is smaller. Further- 

 more, the head is smaller and smoother than in any 

 of the sculpins that are common in the Gulf of 

 Maine, with short spines and many prickles. The 

 first dorsal fin (10 to 12 spines) originates over the 



" Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Ser. 3, vol. 12, Sect. 4, 1918, p. 63, as Centrlr 

 dcrmichthys uncinatus. 

 « Natural. Canad., vol. 62, 1935, p. 79. 

 « Kendall, Proc. Portland Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 2, 1909, p. 217. 



Figure 227. — Mailed sculpin (Triglops ommatistius), off Chebucto, Nova Scotia. From Jordan and Evermann. Drawing 

 by H. L. Todd. 



210941—53 29 



