FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



325 



122. Longhorn sculpin {Myoxocephalns octodecimspinosus Mitchill) 



Gray sculpin; Hacklehead; Toadfish 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1976. 



Description. — This fish resembles the shorthorn sculpin so closely that the 

 description may be confined to the points of difference between the two. Chief 

 of these is the great length of the uppermost cheek spines, which usually are about 

 four times as long as the spine just below and reach at least as far back as the edge 

 of the gill cover. This serves equally to distinguish the young from the grubby, 

 which is short-horned. All the head spines, too, are so sharp that one must be 

 cautious in grasping one of these fish for it turns its spines rigidly outward by 

 spreading its gill covers. Furthermore the long horns are naked at the tip. The 

 number and arrangement of the head spines is the same as in the shorthorn 

 sculpin (p. 320), hence need not be described, and there are two thorns on each 

 shoulder and a larger one just above the origin of the pectoral fin. The first dorsal 

 fin is higher than the second (in the shorthorn sculpin these two fins are about 



Fig. 157. — Longhorn sculpin (Afyoiocephalas octodecimspinoMts) 



equally high), of rather different outhne from that of the shorthorn (compare fig. 

 157 with fig. 152), and proportionately shorter though with about the same number 

 of spines (9). The anal fin originates under the second or third ray of the second 

 dorsal instead of under the fifth ray, though these two fins have the same number 

 of rays (15 to 16 dorsal and about 14 anal) in the two fish, and the pectorals are 

 of the same fanhke form. The lateral line of the longhorn sculpin is marked 

 by a series of smooth cartilaginous plates instead of by the prickly scales of the 

 shorthorn, a difference obvious to the touch, and its body is more slender (about 

 five and one-half times as long as deep) and its head flatter. 



Color. — The longhorn, like other sculpins, varies in color with its surroundings. 

 The ground tint of the back and sides ranges from dark oHve to pale greenish- 

 yellow, greenish-brown, or pale mouse gray, but is never red or black as the short- 

 horn so often is. As a rule there are four irregular obscure dark crossbars, but 

 these are often broken up into blotches and may be indistinct. The coarseness 

 of pattern often corresponds to that of the bottom, as does the degree of contrast 

 between pale and dark. On mud and sand bottom this sculpin is often nearly 

 plain, but when lying on pebbles with white coralHnes its back is often nearly 



