FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 319 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Probably this little sculpin is to be found in 

 suitable localities all around the shores of the Gulf of Maine, for it is common along 

 both shores of the Bay of Fundy on the one hand and has been obtained at various 

 localities in the Massachusetts Bay region — e. g., Cape Ann, Gloucester, Salem, 

 Cohasset, Provincetown — on the other. It seems decidedly local in its distribu- 

 tion, however, for the 'only locality where it has been definitely reported on the 

 intervening coast line is Casco Bay, where it is not uncommon, nor have we our- 

 selves caught it in any of the harbors of Maine where we have fished. Being 

 common in St. Mary Bay (Huntsman, 1922a), it is to be expected along the western 

 coast of Nova Scotia, but it is far outnumbered in the Gulf of Maine by the two larger 

 sculpins to be mentioned next. 



Habits. — Practically nothing is known of the life of the grubby north of Cape 

 Cod except that it associates with other sculpins, with the young of wliich it is usuallj'' 

 confounded. On the southern shores of New England, where it is not only more nearly 

 universal but far more plentiful than anywhere north of Cape Cod, it is found from 

 close to tide mark down to 15 fathoms or so, and it seems that it is similarly re- 

 stricted to comparatively shoal water in the Gulf of Maine, for we have found no 

 record of it, nor have we seen it dredged or trawled, in deep water. In the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, however, Cox found it in the stomachs of cod taken in 60 to 70 fathoms. 

 It is found on all sorts of bottom but most abundantly among eelgrass, and it 

 is resident the year round. It is the only sculpin that summers in shoal water at 

 Woods Hole, and it has been recorded far up Narragansett Bay in very shoal water 

 in midsummer, and is to be found in Gravesend Bay at the mouth of New York 

 Harbor throughout the year. In the GuK of St. Lawrence (e. g., at the Magdalen 

 Islands) it is found in estuaries just as it is in the southern part of its range, as well 

 as outside, but in the Gulf of Maine it seems more restricted to the open coast, 

 for Huntsman found it rare as far up Passamaquoddy Bay as St. Andrews, though 

 common at its mouth, and more plentiful in St. Mary Bay and in Annapolis 

 Basin than in the Basin of Minas on the Scotian side of the Bay of Fundy. Nor 

 have we seen it in salt creeks about Massachusetts Bay. 



The known distribution of the grubby in summer proves that it is certainly 

 at home in water as warm as 69° and perhaps a degree or two warmer. On the 

 other hand, in winter it necessarily survives temperatures as low as 32°, if not 

 lower, both in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and about Woods Hole. Its presence 

 in such estuarine situations as the inner parts of Narragansett Bay on the one hand 

 and off open coasts on the other prove it resistant to a wide range of saUnity, but so 

 far as we can learn it never runs up into appreciably brackish water, and certainly 

 the great majority of the species keeps to waters more saline than 31 per miUe. 



The spawning season of the grubby lasts all winter off southern New 

 England and until June in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, for Cox reports a ripe female 

 on the 18th of that month, at Amherst Island (Magdalen group). The eggs, which 

 are described as of a beautiful green color and 1 mm. in diameter, sink like those 

 of other sculpins and stick to seaweeds or to any object they chance to rest upon, 

 including the nets in which the grubbies are caught. Young sculpins (this species 

 among them) are caught in the tow net at Woods Hole from January to May. 

 102274— 25 1 21 



