444 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Remarks. — The differences between the grubby 

 and the shorthorn sculpin in number of anal rays, 

 and in the presence or absence of a pore behind 

 the last gill arch, seem sharp enough to forbid 

 the possibility that the former may be a dwarf 

 race of the latter. Determination, however, 

 of these characters required such close examina- 

 tion, and grubbies resemble young shorthorns so 

 closely in all other respects that it is not easy to tell 

 the one from the other. We therefore suggest that 

 any small sculpin that may prove difficult to name 

 be forwarded for identification either to the labora- 

 tory of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Woods 

 Hole, Mass.; to the Division of Fishes, U. S. 

 National Museum, Washington, D. C; or to the 

 Department of Fishes, Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. 



Habits. — On the southern shores of New Eng- 

 land, where the grubby is not only more nearly uni- 

 versal than it is to the east and north of Cape Cod, 

 but more plentiful, it is found from tide mark down 

 to 15 fathoms or so. But we have taken it as deep 

 as 28 fathoms in the Gulf of Maine, and Cox has re- 

 ported it in the Gulf of St. Lawrence from the stom- 

 achs of cod caught in 60 to 70 fathoms. It is found 

 on all sorts of bottoms, most abundantly among eel 

 grass (Zostera) during the years when this plant 

 was more plentiful than at present. And it is 

 the only sculpin that summers in very shoal water 

 along southern New England (Woods Hole and 

 up Narragansett Bay) and near New York 

 Harbor. 



In the Gulf of St. Lawrence (e. g., around the Mag- 

 dalen Islands) and on the Nova Scotian coast in 

 general, it is found in estuaries, as in the southern 

 part of its range, as well as outside. But it seems 

 more restricted to the open coast in the Gulf of 

 Maine, for Huntsman found it rare as far up Pas- 

 samaquoddy Bay as St. Andrews, though common 

 at the mouth, and more plentiful in St. Mary Bay 

 and in Annapolis Basin than it is in Minas Basin on 

 the Scotian side of the Bay of Fundy. Neither 

 have we seen it in salt creeks about Massachusetts 

 Bay. 



The known distribution of the grubby in summer 

 proves that it is certainly at home in water as warm 

 as 69° F., and perhaps a degree or two warmer; 

 these temperatures are several degrees higher than 

 are preferred by its larger relative, the shorthorn. 

 On the other hand, it survives temperatures as low 

 as 32° in winter, if not lower, both in the Gulf of St. 



Lawrence, on the Nova Scotian coast, and about 

 Woods Hole. Its presence in the inner parts of 

 Narragansett Bay on the one hand and off open 

 coasts on the other also proves it resistant to a wide 

 range of salinity, but it never runs up into appreci- 

 ably brackish water, as far as we can learn. 



Probably the grubby breeds throughout its geo- 

 graphic range, certainly as far north as the south- 

 ern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And the Bay 

 of Fundy appears to be the site of successful repro- 

 duction, for Huntsman found grubbies of all sizes 

 there. The spawning season lasts all winter off 

 southern New England and until June in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, Cox having reported a ripe female 

 on the 18th of that month, at Amherst Island 

 (Magdalen group). The eggs, which are described 

 as of a beautiful green color and 1 mm. in diameter, 

 sink like those of other sculpins and stick to sea- 

 weeds or to any other objects they chance to rest 

 upon. Young sculpins (this species among them) 

 have been caught in tow nets at Woods Hole from 

 January to May. 



This sculpin is omnivorous like its relatives, 

 feeding on all sorts of small animals which it finds 

 on the bottom, such as annelid worms, shrimps, 

 crabs, copepods, snails, nudibranch mollusks, 

 ascidians, and on small fish, including alewives, 

 cunners, eels, mummichogs, launce, silversides, 

 sticklebacks, and tomcod." It also scavenges 

 any kind of animal refuse. 



General range. — North American coastal waters, 

 from New Jersey to northern Nova Scotia and 

 to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, both in the southern 

 side, where it is common, and the Strait of 

 Belle Isle. 72 



Occurrence in the Gulj oj Maine. — It is probable 

 that this little sculpin is to be found in suitable 

 localities all around the shores of the Gulf of 

 Maine, for it is reported as common along both 

 shores of the Bay of Fundy (including St. Mary 

 Bay) and at various localities in the Massachu- 

 setts Bay region, such as Cape Ann, Gloucester, 

 Salem, Cohasset, and Provincetown, and the 



" This list of fish fry eaten is from Vinal Edward's notes at Woods Hole. 



73 Maine has sometimes been given as its northern limit. But Doctor 

 Huntsman writes us that in 1915 he obtained it in tide pools at Souris, Prince 

 Edward Island; Needier (Proe. Nova Scotian Inst. Sci., vol. 20, 1940, p. 40) 

 describes it as the common sculpin in Malpeque Bay, Prince Edward Island; 

 Cox (Contrib. Canadian Biol. (1918-1920) 1921, p. Ill) characterizes it simi- 

 larly around the Magdalen Islands; Vladkykov and Tremblay (Nat. Canad., 

 vol. 62, 1935, p. 80) report it from the estuary of the St. Lawrence, near Trois 

 Pistoles; and Jeflers (Contrib. Canadian Biol, and Fish., N. Ser., vol. 7, No. 

 16, Ser. A; No. 13) (1932, p. 208) found two specimens on the beach at 

 Raleigh, on the Newfoundland side of the Strait of Belle Isle. 



