318 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHEEIES 



120. Little sculpin {Myoxocephalus seneus Mitchill) 



Grubby 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1972. 



Description. — The most diagnostic features of the grubby, as compared with 

 others of its tribe, are a high first dorsal fia combined with small size and short 

 head spines. It is of the typical sculpin form (p. 314), though proportionately a 

 stouter fish than either the short or long-spined species — that is, about one-fourth 

 as deep as long — with smooth skin but showing the head ridges and spines typical 

 of its genus. Most noticeable of these are a ridge with three spines running along 

 the top of the head over each eye, a pair of spines above the nostrils, and six (all 

 short) on each side of the face between snout and gill opening. None of the cheek 

 spines are long (p. 314). The spiny dorsal (9 spines), originating slightly in front 

 of the upper corner of the gill opening, is decidedly higher but shorter than the 

 second (13 to 14 soft rays), and the two fins are so close together that there is no 

 free space between them. The anal (10 to 11 rays) is slightly shorter than the 



Fig. 151.— Little sculpin (.Myoxocephalus seneus) 



second dorsal, under which it stands. The pectoral is of the fanlike outline char- 

 acteristic of this family, while the ventrals have the usual three rays. There is 

 no slit or pore behind the last gill (usually there is such a slit or pore in the 

 shorthorn sculpin, p. 320). 



Color. — Grubbies, like other sculpins, vary in color according to the bottom 

 on which they lie. All that we have seen, however (this confirms the published 

 descriptions), have been light to dark gray or greenish-gray above, with darker 

 shadings or irregular barrings particularly evident on the sides and fins. The 

 sides of the head are usually mottled light and dark; the belly pale gray or white. 



Size. — This is the smallest of our common sculpins, being seldom more than 

 5 and perhaps never more than 8 inches long. 



General range. — -North American coastal waters. Gulf of St. Lawrence to New 

 Jersey." 



'^ Maine has sometimes been given as its northern limit, but Doctor Huntsman writes us that in 1915 he obtained it in tide 

 pools at Souris, Prince Edward Island, and Cox (Contributions to Canadian Biology, 191S-1920 (1921), p. Ill) describes it as 

 the commonest sculpin at the Magdalen Islands. 



