FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 365 



example (41 mm. long) shows most of the characters of the adult, although it is 

 still transparent and with the arrangement of pigment characteristic of the earlier 

 larval stages. Apart from the pigment there is no danger of confusing the young 

 of the snake blenny with the herring, which is the only other very slender pelagic 

 fish larva (besides rock eel and launce) that is apt to be found in any numbers 

 in the Gulf of Maine in spring, for the tail of the herring is forked from a very early 

 stage and its vent is situated much farther back than that of the blenny (p. 97). 



140. Shanny {Leptoclinus maculatus Fries) 



Langbarn 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2433. 



Description. — The shanny closely resembles the snake blenny in general ap- 

 pearance and in the location and shape of its unpaired fins, but it is not so elongate 

 (only eight instead of fifteen times as long as deep). The most important point of 

 difference is that the lower part of the pectoral fin (5 or 6 rays) is much longer than 

 the upper and obliquely truncate, as appears in the illustration (fig. 183). Its tail, 

 too, is only slightly convex in outline instead of narrowly oval or pointed as in the 

 snake blenny. Furthermore there are fewer fin rays — only 58 to 61 dorsal spines 

 and 34 to 37 anal rays, as pointed out above (p. 363). 





Fig. 183. — Shanny, European (Leptoclinus maculatiis) . After C'ollett 



Color. — Dirty yellowish, paler below, the back and sides marked with indistinct 

 yellowish-brown blotches of various sizes. The dorsal fin is described as barred 

 obliquely with about 10 rows of brownish dots and the pectoral transversely with 

 about 5 rows, but in the only specimen we have examined these fins showed no mark- 

 ings. The caudal fin, however, had a broad but indistinct dark crossbar. 



Size. — About 7 inches long. 



General range. — An Arctic fish, south to Sweden and Norway on the eastern 

 side of the North Atlantic and to Massachusetts Bay on the western side. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Several specimens of this Arctic fish collected 

 in 40 to 90 fathoms in Massachvisetts Bay by the U. S. Fish Commission in 1877,^^ 

 and one that we took in the tow net at 30 fathoms near Boone Island on March 4, 

 1920, are the only records of it in the Gulf of Maine, where it appears only as a 

 chance straggler from the north, to be sought in cold water in the bottom of deep 

 isolated sinks. In such situations it may perhaps maintain itself in small numbers 

 within our limits. 



Habits and food. — In Scandinavian waters it spends most of the year in deep 

 water, probably coming up to the shallows to spawn, however. In the aquarium it 



" Presumably the "Qulf of Maine" specimens reported by Kendall (1914, p. 62), now in the United States National Museum, 

 are this lot. 



