SCULPINS AND GURNARDS. 303 



taken alive out of the water. " Salpa " is a Spanish word for toad, and 

 applied also to species of Batraehidce. " Johnny " is applied only to very 

 little Sculpins along the shore, notably Oligocottus maailosus. The same 

 name is given in the Ohio Valley to fishes of precisely similar habits, 

 the Etlieostomatidce. " Biggy-head " and its Spanish cognate " Cabezon " 

 are used by the Italians and Spanish about Monterey, Santa Barbara, and 

 elsewhere, for different Cottidse. 



Most of the Cottidae feed upon small fishes, and especially crustacean 

 one species, £noJ>/ir}'s bison, being a vegetable feeder. All take the hook 

 readily. The flesh is poor, tough, and dry, and the waste by the removal 

 of the head, viscera, and skin is so great that even the poorest people do 

 not use them as food. Various sorts (notably Lepiocottus arniatits) are 

 dried by the Chinese, who consider them the poorest of all dried fishes. 



The Sea-robin or Gurnard family, is represented on our Atlantic coast 

 by several species, some of them being quite abundant. The most striking 

 of them all is the Sea-bat or Flying Gurnard, Dactylopterus volitans, which 

 is remarkable on account of its enormous spreading fins, larger than those 

 of a flying-fish — wings which, however, are not sufficiently powerful to lift 

 the body above the surface of the water, though useful in maintaining the 

 equilibrium of the heavy-headed body swimming through the water. The 

 colors of the body and of the fins are very brilliant, and the fish is often 

 exhibited as a curiosity. It is found along our entire coast south of Cape 

 Cod, and in the waters of Brazil ; also in the Mediterranean and in the 

 neighboring parts of the Eastern Atlantic. 



The most important of the Pacific Sculpins, writes Jordan, is Scorpcen- 

 ichthys marmoratus. a species which attains the weight of more than ten 

 pounds, being by far the largest member of its family in those waters. It 

 is found from San Diego on the south, to Victoria on the north, but is 

 more abundant about Monterey and San Francisco, than either northward 

 or southward. It inhabits moderate depths, and is taken in considerate 

 numbers with gill-nets and hooks. It feeds upon Crustacea and small fish. 

 Its value is very slight, its flesh being tough and flavorless, and it is rarely 

 sent to market when good fish are abundant. 



The genus Prionotus, of which we have five species, resembles Dac- 

 tylopterus in general form, but the wings are much smaller, while two or 

 three of the lower rays of these fins are developed into fingerrlike 

 appendages which are used in stirring up the weeds and sand to rout out 



