Jordan and Evcrmann. — Fishes of North America. 1879 



orange, the latter obscured by dusky spots and blotches ; the dark bars 

 extending on the fins, the first across the nape, the second across the mid- 

 tUe of the spinous dorsal, the third broader, across posterior part of spi- 

 nous dorsal and front of anal; 1 across middle of soft dorsal, 1 on posterior 

 part, and 1 at base of caudal, the bars about as wide as the interspaces, 

 and their edges irregular, but sharply defined; pectorals and caudal 

 orange, Avith cross series of spots ; ventrals largely black; under side of 

 head orange, freckled, spotted with pale; 2 fringed cirri over each eye, 

 scarlet; breast and belly marbled. Length 10 inches. Rocky shores, 

 on the Pacific coast of the United States from Monterey northward to 

 Puget Sound, living among algai; abundant, but rare in collections, being 

 seldom taken in nets- Here described from specimens from Monterey. 

 A most beautiful and active little fish. (jnctHs, painted.) 



Oxlyebius pictits, Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci.Phila. 1862, 277, California; no definite locality. 

 Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis, 648, 1883 ; Jordan & Starks, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci. 1895, 

 802, pi. 78. 



Family CLXXIX. COTTID^.* 



(The Sculpins.) 



Body moderately elongate, fusiform or compressed, tapering backward 

 from the head, which is usually broad and dei)re8sed. Eyes placed high, 

 the interocular space usually narrow ; a bony stay connectiug the sub- 

 orbital with the preopercle, usually covered by the skin; upper angle of 

 preopercle usually with 1 or more spinous processes, the head sometimes 

 wholly unarmed. Teeth equal, in villiform or cardiform bands on jaws, 

 and often on vomer and palatines; premaxillaries protractile; maxillary 

 without supplemental bone. Gills 3^ or 4, slit behind the last small, often 

 obsolete; gilliakers short, tubercle-like or obsolete; gill membranes 

 broadly connected, often jointed to the isthmus. Body naked, or vari- 

 ously armed with scales, prickles, or bony plates, but never uniformly 

 scaled; lateral line present, simple, sometimes chain-like. Dorsal fins 

 separate or somewhat connected, the spines, 6 to 18 in number, usually 

 slender, sometimes concealed in the skin, the soft part elongate; caudal 

 fin sex^arate, rounded; anal fin similar to the soft dorsal, without spines; 

 pectoral fins large, with broad procurrent bases, the rays mostly simple, 

 the upper sometimes branched ; ventrals thoracic, rarely entirely wanting, 

 the rays usually I, 3 to I, 5, their insertion well forward. Pseudobranchiie 

 present. Vertebra? numerous, 30 to 50. Scapular arch normal; myodome 

 developed; actinosts large, partly intervening between hypercoracoid; 

 ribs sessile on the vertebrae. Pyloric cteca usually in .small number (4 to 8) ; 

 air bladder commonly wanting. Genera about 60; species about 250, 

 mostly of the rock pools and shores of northern regions; many species 

 found in fresh waters ; some of the salt-water species descending to great 

 depths. Most of the species are of small size and singular aspect, and 

 none is valued as food. The family is an extremely varied one, which 



* We are under obligations to Dr. Wilbur W. Thobum for many notes on the American 

 Cottidce. 



