320 BULLETIN OF THE BUEEAU OF FISHERIES 



Probably the grubby breeds throughout its geographic range, certainly as far 

 north as the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Bay of Fundy is 

 the site of successful reproduction, for Huntsman found grubbies of all sizes there. 



Food. — This sculpin is omnivorous like its relatives, feeding on all sorts of small 

 animals which it finds on the bottom, such as annelids, prawns, shrimps, gastropods, 

 nudibranchs, ascidians, crabs, copepods, and on small fish, including alewives, 

 cunners, eels, mummichogs, launce, silversides, sticklebacks, and tomcod. 78 It 

 also scavenges any kind of animal refuse. 



Commercial importance. — Too small to be worth catching for lobster bait, and 

 never eaten, the grubby is of no commercial value, but wherever it is common it- 

 is something of a nuisance to anglers fishing for flounders and cunners for it bites 

 as greedily at any bait as do its larger relatives. 



121. Shorthorn sculpin {Myoxocephalus scorpius Linnaeus) 



Daddy sculpin; Black sculpin; Greenland sculpin 



Jordan and Evermann (M. scorpius and M. grocnlandicus) , 1896-1900, p. 1974. 



Description. — The most precise character by which to distinguish the young of 

 this species from the grubby (no one could confuse the adults) is that there is a 

 pore, small but evident, behind the last gill. Readier field marks are that its spiny 

 dorsal is no higher than the soft dorsal (p. 314), and that its anal fin originates farther 

 back in relation to the latter and is usually longer (at least 13 rays in the shorthorn 

 and only 10 to 11 in the grubby). Furthermore, there are usually 16 or 17 soft 

 dorsal rays, while in the grubby there are only 13 or 14. The number of fin rays 

 varies widely among European representatives of the shorthorn sculpin 79 and the 

 same may be expected with American fish. 



The most obvious difference between the shorthorn and the longhorn sculpins 

 is that the upper cheek spine of the former is less than twice as long as the one 

 below it and does not reach much more than halfway to the edge of the gill cover. 

 Furthermore, all its spines are usually blunt, while those of the longhorn are very 

 sharp (p. 325). The general arrangement of head spines and ridges is the same in 

 the two, however, there being a longitudinal ridge with three knobs or spines run- 

 ning along each side of the crown above the eye, and about 6 (sometimes 5 or 7) 

 short triangular spines on each side of the face between snout and gill opening. 

 There is also a short but sharp spine at the upper corner of the gill cover pointing 

 backward and lying on a skin flap, besides two thornlike spines on each shoulder 

 close behind the upper angle of the gill cover. 



The first dorsal fin has 9 to 11 spines, the caudal is small and slightly rounded f 

 the anal is considerably shorter than the second dorsal and originates under its 

 fourth or fifth ray, and the pectorals are fanlike. There are two series of prickly plate- 

 like scales along each side of the body, one above, the other below the lateral line, 

 and this species resembles other sculpins in its large head, wide mouth, and tapering 

 body (p. 314). 



78 This list of fish fry is from Vinal Edwards's notes at Woods Hole. 

 « Smitt. Scandinavian Fishes, 1892, p. 180. 



