FISHES OP THE GULF OF MAINE 



315 



the top of the nose between the two pairs of nostrils, and a pair of blunt knobs 

 above the eyes. Head, mouth, and tapering body are of the usual sculpin form. 

 The skin is smooth and naked. The spiny dorsal is short (7 to 9 spines) and rounded 

 in outline, the soft dorsal is more than twice as long (13 rays), and the anal (11 rays) 

 is slightly shorter than the soft dorsal, which it resembles in outline and under which 

 it stands. The ventrals each consist of three long rays reaching back to the vent; 

 the pectorals, wide at the base and rounded in outline, reach beyond the beginning 

 of the soft dorsal when laid back, and the caudal fin is narrower than in the commoner 

 GuK of Maine sculpins. The jaws and the roof of the mouth are armed with 

 several series of small bristlelike teeth. 



Color. — Described (after preservation) as reddish brown above with creamy 

 sides and dirty white belly, the sides showing vague crossbars of the same color as 

 the back. There is a dark blotch at the base of the caudal fin, and the head is mottled 

 with brown. The spiny dorsal is blackish with two or three irregular white cross 

 streaks, while the soft second dorsal shows six or seven dark crossbands; the 

 pectoral and caudal fins are marked with two or three and the anal with four irreg- 

 ular dark bars. 



Fig. 149. — Hook-eared sculpin (ArtedicUus atlantkus) 



Size. — Only about 4 inches long — one of the smallest of sculpins. The lai^est 

 of the few trawled by the Grampus (p. 315) was only about 2}^ inches (63 mm.) 

 long. 



General range. — This is a cold-water species known from Labrador to Cape 

 Cod. It is replaced in the littoral waters of arctic Europe, Siberia, and Greenland 

 by a form {Artediellus uncinatus) so closely related that we suspect a critical exami- 

 nation of the two would lead to their union. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — In the Gidf this species is confined to depths 

 of about 40 fathoms or deeper. Evidently it is fairly common in the deeper parts 

 of Massachusetts Bay, for it was dredged there in abundance in 40 to 90 fathoms on 

 several occasions many years ago. Other definite records for it in the inner parts 

 of the Gulf are as follows: Two were trawled by the Grampus off Cape Elizabeth 

 in 40 fathoms and four off Monhegan Island in 60 fathoms in July, 1912. It has 

 been reported "off Cape Cod" in 110 fathoms; the Albatross trawled it in the south- 

 east basin of the Gulf (42° 17' N. 66° 37' W., 150 fathoms) and at the offshore 

 entrance to the eastern channel (42° 03' N. 65° 49' W., 131 fathoms); also on the 



