FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



457 



trawlers in 1913 and subsequently, added to our 

 trawling experiences, show that sea ravens are 

 much less numerous on Georges Bank than the 

 longhorn sculpin; it is seldom that as many as a 

 dozen are taken in a haul of the otter trawl. 

 Thus the dragger Eugene H took only 46 sea 

 ravens in 38 hawls on the southwestern part of 

 Georges, at 26-55 fathoms in late June 1951, 

 and none in her deeper hauls. 



To the eastward and northward sea ravens are 

 described as common all along outer Nova 

 Scotia to Canso; they have been reported on 

 Sable Island Bank and on Banquereau Bank in 

 depths of about 20-30 fathoms; and they are 

 taken here and there on the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 coast of Cape Breton. They are also reported 

 from Anticosti and in the Strait of Belle Isle 

 (footnote 12, p. 456); but there cannot be many 



of them in the southern side of the Gulf, for they 

 are not mentioned in the published lists of Fishes 

 for Prince Edward Island, or around the Mag- 

 dalens. And there is only one report of a sea 

 raven on the Grand Banks (see footnote 13, p. 456) ; 

 and one for the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, 

 i. e., from Trinity Bay. 1 * 



To the westward and southward the sea raven 

 is reported as rather common as far as New York 

 and New Jersey; and it has been reported from 

 Chesapeake Bay. 16 



Commercial importance. — Although the sea raven 

 is said to be a good table fish there is no more 

 market for it than for other sculpins in New Eng- 

 land or Canada. But it is generally considered 

 excellent bait for lobster pots, hence shore fisher- 

 men are likely to save what ravens they catch for 

 this purpose. 



ALLIGATORFISHES. FAMILY AGONIDAE 18 



These curious little fishes are related to the 

 sculpins anatomically, though their general ap- 

 pearance gives no hint of the fact. Their most 

 striking external feature is that the body is armed 

 with several rows of overlapping plates. The 

 only Gulf of Maine species somewhat suggests a 

 pipefish in this and in its slender form, but there 

 is no danger of confusing one with a pipefish, 

 for its mouth is of the ordinary form; and it has 

 ventral fins. Some agonids have a spiny dorsal 

 fin which others lack, while the ventral fins are 

 situated far forward (only a little rearward of the 

 pectorals) in all of them. Twenty-six of the 

 many species included in the family are known 

 from the western coast of North America from 

 Bering Sea to southern California; two are known 

 from the eastern coast of North America. 



One of the eastern American species (Leptagonus 

 decagonus, Bloch and Schneider 1801), with two 

 dorsal fins, is Arctic, ranging southward only to 

 northern Nova Scotia; 17 the other, with only one 



11 Rept. Newfoundland Fish. Eos. Comra., vol. 1, No. 4, 1932, p. 108. 



"Jordan, Evermann and Clark's (Rept. U. S. Comm. Fish. 1928 part 2, 

 1930, p. 393) reference of it to the Tortugas seems to have been an error. 



18 Some recent authors separate this gToup into two families, Agonidae or 

 Sea Poachers for those with two dorsal fins, Aspidopboroididae or Alligator- 

 fishes for those with only one dorsal fin. But it seems preferable, for the 

 purposes of the present volume, to follow the older custom of uniting them 

 in the one family Agonidae. 



17 A young specimen has been reported from Banquereau Bank (Rept. 

 Newfoundland Fish. Res. Comm., vol. 2, No. 1, 1933, p. 127) as Agonus 

 decagonus. 



dorsal fin {Aspidophoroides monopterygius) is a 

 regular member of the Gulf of Maine fish fauna 

 (p. 457). 



Alligatorfish Aspidophoroides monopterygius 

 (Bloch) 1786 



Sea poacher 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2091. 



Description. — The readiest field marks for the 

 identification of this curious little fish (so odd in 

 appearance that it is not likely to be mistaken for 

 any other) are that its entire head and body are 

 clad with bony plates; that it has only one dorsal 

 fin (the soft rayed); aud that it is very slender 

 (about 12 to 13 times as long as it is deep, not 

 counting the caudal fin) , rather broader than deep, 

 and tapering rearward from the head to a very 

 slender caudal peduncle. The plates are smooth, 

 arranged in longitudinal rows. There is a double 

 row along the back running from close behind the 

 head to close behind the dorsal fin where it unites 

 into a single mid-dorsal row (altogether 45 to 50 

 double and single plates along the back); three 

 rows on the forward part of each side, but only 

 two rows along the rear part; and two rows along 

 the lower surface to just behind the anal fin, where 

 they unite in one row. Thus the trunk is octagonal 

 in front of the unpaired fins, but hexagonal behind 



