FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



439 



anal is about as long as the soft dorsal and is 

 preceded by 3 spines with fin membrane. The 

 ventrals are placed a little behind the pectorals. 

 It lacks the bony skin plates and the filamentous 

 prolongations of the dorsal spines so conspicuous 

 on the John Dory; and its mouth is very small 

 (larger in the John Dory). 



Color. — Color, in life, pink and pinkish white. 



Size. — Maximum reported length about 1 foot. 



General range. — Tropical and subtropical Atlan- 

 tic, mostly offshore. 66 



Occurrence in the Gulf oj Maine. — We mention 

 this fish because we have seen 8 specimens 66 and 

 heard of 6 others 67 that were trawled in 55-80 

 fathoms, south of Nantucket Lightship in May 

 1950. Other records of it near the American 

 coast are one trawled by the Albatross III at 50 

 fathoms and a second at 22 fathoms off North 

 Carolina, in January 1950. It has also been 

 taken near Madeira, off the Barbados, and in 

 Cuban waters. 



u Reports of it from Japan, from the Kai Islands and from the Celebes Sea 

 (Manado) may have been based on a closely allied fish. For descriptions of 

 the species of this genus, with references, see Fraser-Brunner (Ann. Mag. 

 Nat. Hist., Ser. 12, vol. 3, No. 32, 1950, pp. 721-724). 



M Three trawled by Albatross III; five by the Eugene H. 



" Reported by Capt. Henry Klimm, of the dragger Eugene H. 



Figure 225. — Boarfish (Antigonia capros), 105 mm. speci- 

 men, south of Nantucket Lightship. Drawing by H. 

 B. Bigelow. 



THE SCULPINS AND SEA RAVENS. FAMILIES COTTIDAE AND HEMITRIPTERIDAE 



The several members of the sculpin and sea- 

 raven tribe that are known from the Gulf of 

 Maine are a homogeneous group, characterized by 

 large spiny heads; very wide gill openings; very 

 broad mouths; slender bodies; separate spiny and 

 soft-rayed dorsal fins (united in some rare species) ; 

 large fanlike pectorals but small caudals; and by 

 ventrals that are reduced to three long rays. All 

 of them, too, have a fashion of spreading the gill 

 covers and of flattening the head when taken in 

 the hand. They likewise produce grunting sounds, 

 and some of them have the power of inflating 

 themselves with air or water when they are 

 molested. The only other Gulf of Maine fishes 

 that resemble them in general form, are the sea 

 robins (p. 467), the toadfish (p. 518), and the goose- 

 fish (p. 537). But the entire head of the sea robin 

 is armed with bony plates, different from the 

 soft-skinned head of a sculpin; in the toadfish the 

 soft portion of the dorsal fin is many times as long 

 as the spiny part (at most twice as long as the 



spiny part in a sculpin) ; and not only are the fins 

 of the goosefish small and weak as compared with 

 the present family, but its lower jaw projects far 

 beyond the upper, and its mouth is full of very 

 large pointed teeth, whereas in the sculpins the 

 teeth are small and the upper and lower jaws are 

 of approximately equal length. 



The sculpin tribe, as a group, are egg-laying 

 fishes. 68 Among the Arctic members of the 

 family, including the genera Artediellus, Cottun- 

 culus, Gymnocanthus, and Icelus, the males have 

 a long anal papilla, through which the urinary 

 duct and the sperm ducts both pass. The sup- 

 position is that this serves as a copulating organ, 

 fertilization taking place within the female, and 

 the fertilized eggs being laid soon after. 69 



M Eggs with embryos far advanced in development have been reported 

 within the ovaries of female short horn sculpins (Myoxocephalus scorpius) 

 from Finland (Nordquist, Svensk. Fiskeri Tidskr., year 6, 1899). But it is 

 well established that this sculpin ordinarily lays eggs, as described below 

 (p. 447). 



* See Jensen and Vols0e (Danske Vidensk. Selskab. Biol. Meddel., vol. 

 21, No. 6, 1949, p. 18) for a detailed account of the anal papula in Icelus. 



