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THE SCULPIX. 



SCULPINS AND GURNARDS. 



Now the Sculpin is a little water beast which pretends to consider itself a fish, and, under that pretext, hr.ngs 

 about the piles on which West Boston Bridge is built, swallowing the bait and hook intended for flounders. 

 On being drawn from the water, it exposes an immense head, a diminutive bony carcass, and a surface so full 

 of spines, ridges, ruffles and frills that the naturalists have not been able to count them without quarreling about 

 their number ; and that the colored youth, whose sport they spoil do not like to touch them, and especially to 

 tread on them unless they happen to have shoes on to cover the soles of their broad black feet. 



Holmes: The Professor at the Breakfast Table. 



o 



N our Atlantic coast are found several species of this family, generally 

 known by the name " Sculpin," and also by such titles as *' Grubby," 

 "Puffing-grubby," "Daddy Sculpin," "Bullhead," "Sea-robin," "Sea- 

 toad," and "Pig-fish." Their economic value is little or none, but 

 they are important as scavengers, and are used for lobster bait. They are 

 often a source of great annoyance to the fishermen by cumbering their 

 hooks and by stealing their bait. The most abundant species is the 

 Eighteen-spined Sculpin, Cottus octodecimspinosus , which frequents shallow 

 and moderately deep waters from Labrador to New York. It is usually 

 associated with a smaller species, Cottus anetcs, which may be called the 

 " Pigmy Sculpin," and which ranges from the Bay of Fundy to New York. 

 Cottus scorpius, of Europe, is represented on our coasts by C. scorpius 

 sub-species gr cent an dims, which is abundant everywhere from New York to 

 Greenland and Labrador. This sub-species has been found on the coast of 

 Ireland,* and the typical Cottus scorpius has been shown by Dr. Bean to 

 occur in Maine. This is also, in addition to several insignificant species 

 seldom seen except by naturalists, a large, brilliantly colored form, known 



* Annals of Natural History, 1844, p. 402. 



