FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



329 



124. Deep-sea SCUlpin (( 'ottunculus microps Collett) 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1992. 



Description — In this species the head spines, so characteristic of most sculpins, 

 are reduced to bony knobs, of which there are four on the top and several on the 

 sides of the head. The two portions of the dorsal fin (spiny and soft) are united 

 into one continuous fin, a feature that marks it off from all other local sculpins, 

 while the spiny part (only 6 spines) is shorter and lower than the soft part (19 rays). 

 The very large bony head, wide mouth, slender tapering body, large fan-shaped 

 pectorals, and the location of the ventrals below the pectorals, give the fish a typical 

 sculpin aspect, however. The anal fin (about 10 rays) is slightly shorter than the 

 soft portion of the dorsal, and the caudal fin is small and rounded. The skin is 

 roughened with small warts. 



Color. — Described as pale with dusky crossbars, one on the head, two on the 

 body and fins, and one at the base of the caudal fin. Scandinavian specimens 

 have been represented as showing still another band across the tip of the caudal 

 and with the anal and pectoral fins dark mottled. 89 



*^^i^feS^ 



Fig. 159.— Deep-sea sculpin ( Cottunculus microps) 



Size. — About 8 inches long. 



General range and occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This is a deep-water species 

 known off east Greenland and about Spitzbergen in the Arctic Ocean and from 

 both sides of the North Atlantic. Off the American coast it has been taken at 

 numerous localities on the continental shelf and slope abreast of New England in 

 depths of 122 to 487 fathoms. Its depth range in Scandinavian waters is about the 

 same. Only two of these records fall within the geographic limits covered by this 

 report — one in the extreme southeast corner of the basin of the Gulf (lat. 42° 23', 

 long. 66° 23') in 141 fathoms, and the other in the eastern channel between Browns 

 and Georges Banks (lat. 42° 15', long. 65° 48') in 122 fathoms, but this is enough to 

 show that it is to be expected anywhere in the deep basin below 100 fathoms. 90 

 Nothing is known of its habits. 



» Smitt. Scandinavian Fishes, 1892. 



90 Ooode and Bean (1896) list the American records. 



