FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 331 



The entire skin of the sea raven, below as well as above, is prickly, the prickles 

 being largest on the back and along the lateral line; smallest, but still obvious to 

 the touch, on the lower sides and belly. In all other Gulf of Maine sculpins the 

 belly is smooth. We may point out in passing that the ventral fins are fleshy, each 

 with 3 rays only, not 4 as shown in Jordan and Evermann's illustration. 



Color. — The sea raven varies in color from blood red to reddish purple, choco- 

 late, or yellowish brown, but it is invariably paler below than above and usually with 

 a yellow belly. Many are plain colored. For instance, one 18 inches long, which I 

 caught off Mount Desert recently, was uniform red chocolate on back and sides, 

 but others are variously mottled with a paler or darker cast of the general ground 

 tint or even with white. The fins are variously barred with light and dark, the 

 pectorals and anal often being yellow-rayed. 



Size. — One of 25 inches and 5 pounds weight, mentioned by Storer, is the 

 largest on record, but ravens are often 18 to 20 inches long and weigh from 2 to 

 3 pounds. 



General range. — Atlantic coast of North America from Labrador, Newfound- 

 land, and the Grand Banks to Chesapeake Bay. Most common east and north of 

 Cape Cod. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The geographic range of the sea raven in the 

 Gulf covei-s the whole coastal belt from a fathom or two down to about 50 fathoms, 

 including the passages among the islands that fringe Maine and Nova Scotia as 

 well as the larger estuaries such as St. Mary, Passamaquoddy, Machias, 

 Penobscot (it runs up the latter to its head at Bucksport), and Casco Bays, and 

 the deeper harbors, for example Boston, Salem, Eastport, and St. Johns. Fish- 

 ermen also report them on Cashes Ledge, while the otter trawlers and line trawlers 

 pick up odd ones over the whole of Georges Bank and likewise on Browns, but it 

 is not known to occur in the basin deeper than about 75 fathoms. Probably its 

 lower limit is set as much by the character of the bottom as by depth, our own 

 experience, confirmed by our various inquiries, being that ravens are to be caught 

 only on rocky ground (which is its chief haunt from Massachusetts Bay northward) , 

 pebbles, hard sand, or clay (which it haunts off Cape Cod and on the ofl'shore 

 Banks), never on such soft sticky mud as floors the deeper sinks and the basin. 

 There is no definite upper limit to its vertical wanderings other than the surface, 

 but on the whole it keeps to deeper water than do the other sculpins common in 

 the Gulf, being caught very seldom within the smaller estuaries and perhaps never on 

 the tidal flats. At least we have never seen it in such situations at Cohasset, 

 Mass., though it is not uncommon about the oft'-lying ledges close by. 



Although so generally distributed in the Gulf, sea ravens seem to be nowhere 

 abundant as compared with other sculpins; and this is as true in the Bay of Fundy 

 as it is in Massachusetts Bay, where one expects to catch a few about any of the 

 fishing ledges but where it would be unusual for one man to land any considerable 

 number in a day. Similarly, the schedules of the catches made by certain otter 

 trawlers in 1913 show that sea ravens are much less numerous on Georges Bank than 

 are other sculpins. In fact, 15 was the most caught on any trip. 



