lOi'l Bulletin //, United States National Museum. 



kkk. Preopercle without spine, its edge covered by smooth skin, a trace of the 



upper spine rarely present; skin smooth. 



t. Dorsal.s separate. LEIOPOMUS, 2334. 



tt. Dorsals connected, long and low, a shallow notch between spinous and 



soft parts. PHI^'CEPS, 2335. 



Subgenus PEGEDICTIS, Eafiuesque. 



2314. tOTTUS ASPER, Richardson. 



(Prickly Bullhead.) 



Head 3i to 3^ ; depth 4i. D. IX or X, 19 to 21 ; A. 17 or 18, rarely 15 or 16 ; 

 eye 5 in head; maxillary 24^; pectoral 11; ventral 2; caudal If. Body 

 deepest at vshoulders; caudal peduncle moderately slender, its depth a 

 little less thau length of snout. Head wedge-shaped as viewed from 

 above; mouth quite at lower profile of head; maxillary to below posterior 

 margin of pupil ; palatine teeth in a very narrow band on front of palatines 

 only ; preopercular spine long and sharp ; interorbital rather wide, about 

 equal to vertical diameter of eye; pectoral barely reaching front of anal; 

 ventrals not reaching vent; dorsals slightly connected at base. Prickles 

 coarse and stiff, not closely crowded; lateral line complete; vent in the 

 middle of the body in the large majority of specimens, sometimes slightly 

 nearly tail. Color grayish olive, much spotted and mottled with blackish ; 

 all fins, except anal and ventrals, with dark wavy cross lines. The coarser 

 prickles, more anterior position of vent, and datfer interorbital space 

 separate Cottm asper, at least subspecifically, from the Sacramento Eiver 

 form, Coitus (/tdosus. Streams of the Cascade Range from Vancouver Island 

 to Oregon, abundant in cold streams; extremely variable, almost every 

 variation in the roughness of the skin being found. Length a foot; the 

 largest species of Cottas. Here described from a specimen from Walla 

 Walla. 



Dr. Gilbert notes: 



Five specimens taken in a small stream emptying into Departure Bay, 

 Vancouver Island. The head is naked in all of these, and the prickles 

 absent on belly, along l)ases of spinous dorsal and anal fin, and on caudal 

 peduncle. D. VIII or IX, 21 or 22 ; A. 16 to 18. 



Still other specimens from Vancouver Island and about Port Towuseud 

 have a band of small prickles extending along lateral line to middle of 

 second dorsal, {asper, rough.) 



Cottus asper, Richardson, Fauna Bor.-Amer., Fish., 295, 183G, Columbia River at Fort 



Vancouver. (Coll. Dr. Gairdner.) 

 Trachidermis nchardsoni, Heckel, Ann. Wiener Mus. 1840, 162, Columbia River; after 



Richardson. 

 Centridermichthys asper, Richardson, Voyage Sulphur, Ichth., 74, 1845; Gunther, Cat., 



II, 170. 

 Cotlopsis asper, Girard, U. S. Pac. R. R. Surv., X, Fish., 51, 1858. 

 Uranidea aspcra, Jordan &. Gilbert, Synopsis, 694, 1883. 



2315. COTTUS GULOSCS (Girard). 



Head 3 ; depth U ; D. VIII or IX, 19 to 21 ; A. 16 to 18 ; eye 5 to 6 in head ; 

 maxillary 2i; pectoral li; caudal 1*. Body not much compressed, the 



