448 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



generally, including Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, 

 north Siberia, West Greenland, and northern 

 Labrador; and southward along the American 

 coast to southern New England; to New Jersey 

 as a stray. 



Figure 230. — Egg (European). After Ehrenbaum. 



Figure 231. — Larva (European), 8.2 mm. 

 Ehrenbaum. 



After 



Figure 232. — Larva (European), 10 mm. After 

 Ehrenbaum. 



Figure 233. — Fry, 18 mm. After Ehrenbaum. 

 Shorthorn sculpin (Myoxocephalus scorpius) 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This is one 

 of the most familiar of our shore fishes, common all 

 around the entire coast line of the Gulf of Maine; 

 it is not so abundant as the longhorn sculpin 

 (p. 449), but we doubt if there is a suitable situa- 

 tion, Cape Cod to Cape Sable, where some short- 

 horns are not to be found, except perhaps at the 

 head of the Bay of Fundy. 82 But they do not 



u Huntsman found none there. 



run far up estuaries as a rule, and never into brack- 

 ish water. 



The shorthorn has not been reported positively 

 either from Georges Bank or from Browns. 

 Sculpins of some sort, it is true, are so common on 

 the former that otter trawlers often catch from 

 20 to 100 per haul, and equally so on Browns 

 Bank. But fishermen lump this and the next 

 species together. Also the fact that the few 

 positively identified on the banks have all proved 

 to be longhorns, and the general predilection of the 

 shorthorn for water shoaler than these offshore 

 grounds, makes it doubtful whether it is to be 

 found there in any numbers. Further evidence 

 in this direction (if indirect) is that most of the 

 shorthorns that were taken during the experi- 

 mental trawlings of the Newfoundland Fisheries 

 Research Commission were from hauls shoaler 

 than 50 fathoms, only one from as deep as 57 

 fathoms. 



Although it is more strictly confined to com- 

 paratively shoal water than the longhorn sculpin, 

 the shorthorns are not often seen close to tide 

 mark in summer, except in the Bay of Fundy 

 where the temperature of even the uppermost 

 few feet does not rise above 52°-54° in most 

 summers, and where there are shorthorns of all 

 sizes in very shallow water, in summer as well as 

 at other times of the year. 



On the other hand, the shorthorns living around 

 the open shores of the Gulf show no tendency to 

 avoid winter chilling by descending to greater 

 depths in winter, In the Bay of Fundy, for 

 example, where it is very common, Huntsman has 

 characterized it as the only fish that remains near 

 shore during the coldest part of the year; and it 

 has been described as more plentiful along the 

 shores of Massachusetts Bay in winter than in 

 summer, as it certainly is south of Cape Cod. 

 Certain shallow bays, it is true, such as Duxbury 

 Harbor, where broad expanses of flats are exposed 

 at low tide to heating by the sun in summer and 

 to the formation of ice in winter, are an exception 

 to this rule; i. e., the shorthorn sculpins tend to 

 keep to the deeper channels through the coldest 

 part of the winter as well as during the heat of 

 midsummer. But we have found no evidence that 

 they carry out any seasonal migrations more ex- 

 tensive than this. They are, indeed, among the 

 most stationary of Gulf of Maine fishes. 



