FISHES. 119 



21730. Godthaab, Greeulaml, A. L. Kumlien. 



21731. Godthaab, Greenland, A. L. Kumlien. 



21740. (151.) ^. Niantilic Harbor, Cumberland Gulf, A. L. Kumlien. 

 21751. (67.) Young. Arctic Id., Cumberland Gulf, A. L. Kumlien. 

 16931. Many young. Cumberland Gulf, Lieut. W. A. Mintzer. 



I have reached practically the same conclusion concerning the rela- 

 tions of C. scorpius and C. gronlandicus as Dr. Liitken, Malmgren, and Col 

 lett, since it is probable that they use the term " variety " in the same sense 

 in which I use " sub-species." Br. Liitken, however, supposes the Coitus 

 variabilis of Ayres to be a synonym of C. scorjnus sub-species gronlandi- 

 cus; but it is identical with Cottus ceneus Mitchill. The Coitus MitcMlli 

 of Cuvier and Valenciennes, which was a mere name based on the Cottus 

 scorpius of Mitchill, is evidently a synonym of C. scorpius sub-species 

 gronlandicus ; but the name Cottus MitcMlli, as used by Dr. DeKay and 

 Professor Gill and understood in the museum catalogues, was associated 

 with the species which should be called C. ooneus of Mitchill. DeKay's 

 Cottus ceneus as described and figured is a compound of ceneus and octo- 

 decimspinosus. His C. MitcliilU is the true ceneus of Mitchill. 



C. ceneus Mitchill is the smallest of the marine sculpins of the east 

 coast so far as known, and ai)pears to be the least widely distributed. Its 

 limits may be stated as Long Island on the south and Maine on the north. 

 II has the narrowest interorbital space of our five known species. It is 

 not uncommon to find individuals of 2J inches in length full of spawn. 

 The base of the anal is almost invariably shorter than that of the first 

 dorsal. It is highly probable that DeKay's figure* of Cottus ceneus 

 Mitchill was drawn from a specimen of Coitus octodecimspinosus Mitch- 

 ill, the only known Eastern American sculpin with so long a spine on 

 the praeoperculum. The number of anal rays (13) in this figure has 

 never been recorded in Cottus ceneus, but is common in C. octodecimspi- 

 nosus. DeKay's figure of Cottus MitcMlli is a fair representation of the 

 ceneus of Mitchill. 



Cottus scorpius sub-species gronlandicus has about the same southern 

 limit as C. ceneus, but it ranges northward to Greenland. It is abundant 

 at Wood's HoU, Massachusetts, in winter. The United States Fish 

 Commission has found it common in summer at different points along 

 the coast between Cape Cod and Halifax, jSTova Scotia. At Salem and 

 Gloucester it was caught from the wharv^es. The stomach of an adult 

 of medium size, taken at Wood's HoU, Mass., by the United States 

 Fish Commission, contained three crabs, Cancer irroratus. 



* New York Fauna, Fishes, 1842, p. 52, pi. vi, fig. 19. 



