310 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



132. Myoxocephalus polyacanthocephalus (Pallas). Great Sculpin. 



The collection contains 25 specimens, from 1.75 to 13 inches long; collected in 1903, at the following 

 places: Marrowstone Point ; Cleveland Passage; stations 4270 and 4272, Litnik Bay; Karluk; Admiralty 

 Head; Metlakatla; Funter Bay; Point Ellis; Port Alexander; Snug Harbor, and Yakutat. The 

 species was seen also at Dundas, Pablof, Sitkoh, and Uyak bays. 



These specimens show that (here is considerable variation in the relative distances between the 

 supraocular spines themselves and the occipital spines. The distance seems to be relatively greater 

 in the young examples than in the older ones. 



In the larger specimens the general color is much darker than in the smaller ones, the light colors, 

 especially posteriorly, lading into darker; belly and ventral tins distinctly mottled and spotted. In all 

 the smaller examples the belly is pale and there are 3 very distinct dark bars across the body; the first 

 under the sixth to eighth dorsal spines, extending slightly forward and downward across base of pectoral; 

 the second under soft dorsal, beginning under the third ray, and extending under nearly full length of 

 fin and downward nearly to anal, this bar more or less broken at its center and sometimes divided, form- 

 ing 2 bars, which may be called second and third, 1 over anterior, the other over posterior part of soft 

 dorsal; the last bar (fourth when the second is divided, otherwise third) covering posterior part of 

 caudal peduncle. 



Fig. G7. — Myoxocephalus polyacanthocephalus ( Pallas). 



Mr. Rutter secured at Karluk, June 8-10, 1903,18 very small specimens one-half to 1 inch long 

 and 3 specimens 3.75 to li inches long. The 6-inch specimen had in its stomach 4 Blennicottus acuticeps, 

 each 1.75 inches long and 1 Pholis ornatus 4 inches long. They w 7 ere very little digested, the J'lmlis- 

 ornatus scarcely at all. 



A nut her specimen (no. 2178), 20.5 inches long, collected by the Albatross at Kodiak Island in Uganuk 

 Bay, 1897, differs from current description in that the pectoral does not reach the anal by a distance 

 equal to length of second dorsal spine, and the preopercular spine is not longer but slightly shorter than 

 diameter of eye. 



The collection contains 24 additional specimens collected by the Albatross at dates other than 1903. 

 These vary from 2.75 to 18.5 inches in length, and were taken at Sucia Island; Promise Island; Mary 

 Island; Nichols Bay; Hunters Bay; Niblacks Anchorage; Sitka; Litnik Bay; Uganuk Bay; Kyska Island, 

 and Atka Island. Four small specimens were collected by Mr. M. C. Marsh at St. Paul Island in 1900. 



This species was originally described from the Aleutian Islands by Pallas (1811). Bean (1880) records 

 it from Unalaska, and (1882) from Wrangell; Sitka; Port Mulgrave, Yakutat Bay; Refuge Cove. Cook 

 Inlet; St. Paul, Kodiak Island; Humboldt Harbor, Pirate Cove and Popof Island, Shunijjgins; Iliuliuk 

 and Chernofski, Unalaska; Nazan Bay, Atka; Amchitka; Port Moller and Cape Lisburne; also (1884) 

 from Mary Island ; Makushin Bay; Unalaska Harbor; near mouth of Unalaska River; Shaw Bay, Unimak 

 Island; and Herendeen Bay. Gilbert (1895) records it from a number of stations in Bristol Bay. Turner 

 (1886) records it from the Aleutian islands: Scofield (1899) from Chignik Bay; Rutter (1898) from 

 Karluk, and Nelson (1880) from Unalaska. 



