330 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



125. Sea raven (Hemitripterus americanus Gmelin) 



Eed sculpin; Sea sculpin; Raven; Toadfish; King o'Norway 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2023. 



Description. — No one would be likely to confuse the sea raven with any other 

 sculpin, for, as Jordan and Evermann (1896-1900, p. 2023) remark, it is "a most 

 remarkable looking fish." It is stouter bodied than our other common sculpins, 

 about three and three-fourths times as long as deep (counting caudal fin) , with very 

 large head. Both the jaws of its wide mouth are armed with several rows of very 

 sharp teeth noticeably longer and stouter than the teeth of either the long-horned 

 or the short-horned sculpins. Its most distinctive features, however, which identify 

 it at a glance or a touch, are the fleshy tags, simple and branched, on the head; 

 the outline of its dorsal fin ; and the texture of its skin. There is a series of 4 to 8 

 of the tabs along each side of the lower jaw, three pairs on the top of the snout, 

 and others, variable in number and size, above and in front of the eyes and along the 

 upper jaws. There is also a short but high keel on the top of the snout with a deep 



r ■■"',-, 



-■>-.." 



Fig. 160. — Sea raven (Hemilripterus americanus) 



hollow behind it, another high ridge above, and a lower one below each eye. 

 These, with about 12 rounded knobs on the crown and several low bosses, besides 

 2 short spines on each cheek give the head a peculiarly bony appearance. 



The first two or three spines of the first dorsal fin are longest; the fourth and 

 fifth spines are shorter than those further back, giving the fin an outline quite 

 unlike that of any other sculpin; from the third spine backward the fin mem- 

 brane is deeply emarginate between every two spines but expanded at the tips of 

 the latter into irregular flaps; and the margin of the anal fin is similarly but less 

 deeply scalloped between the rays. Furthermore the first dorsal fin originates 

 further forward than in any other Gulf of Maine sculpin — that is, well in front of 

 the gill opening — and is much longer (16 spines) than the second (12 rays), whereas 

 in our other sculpins the second dorsal is longer than the first. The pectorals are 

 fanlike and the caudal brush shaped as in other sculpins. 



