﻿THE SCULPIN AND ITS HABITS 

 By THEODORE GILL 



I 



One of the commonest and most characteristic groups of fishes of 

 all the cold northern waters is that represented by the common 

 Sculpin of the New England coast. In no American work is there 

 a full account of its habits. To fill this gap as much as possible, in 

 the present state of our knowledge, is the object of the present 

 article. The data are derived mainly from F. A. Smitt's Scandi- 

 navian Fishes, and works or memoirs by Mcintosh, Masterman, 

 Thomas Scott, Nordquist, Ehrenbaum, and the earlier ones of 

 Fabricius, Van Beneden, Day, and A. Agassiz, in addition to per- 

 sonal observations in the field along the New England coast, Grand 

 Manan, and Newfoundland, and in the aquarium. The language 

 of the authors from whom information is derived is given as far 

 as possible. The illustrations have been copied chiefly from the ex- 

 cellent contribution of Doctor Ehrenbaum. 



II 



The Sculpins of the American shore-men are representatives of a 

 family rich in genera and species known as the Cottidce, or. as angli- 



Fig. 45. — Common Sculpin (Myoxocephalus scorpms). After Jordan and 



Evermann. 



cized, Cottids. The Cottids or Sculpins are elongated mail-cheeked 

 fishes, contracted backward from the pectoral region, or long-conic, 



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