﻿:5o 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



[VOL. 47 



'<■»■•, 



Fig. 48. — Skull of Sculpin (after Girard). 



semi-oval and gradually contracted into the moderately narrow inter- 

 orbital area. The armature of the head is much more fully developed 

 than that of the fresh-water species, as may be inferred from the 



specific name (18-spinosus 

 or 18-spined) of the most 

 common kind found along 

 the coasts of middle and 

 southern United States. 



The genus Myoxocepha- 

 lus is the largest of the 

 marine genera of the fam- 

 ily and comprises the species best known, at least to the dwellers 

 around the northern Atlantic. Its principal distinctive charac- 

 teristics are the naked body, wide gill-apertures and freedom of 

 the gill-membranes below, the development on each side of three 

 preopercular spines (the uppermost of which is straight and the 

 lowermost turned downward), the presence 

 of a single suprascapular spine, the projec- 

 tion of the upper jaw beyond the lower, 

 and the absence of palatine teeth. 



The name by which the common species, 

 as well as others of the genus, is almost 



universally known along the entire coast of America is Sculpin, 

 or Skulpin. The etymology of this word is generally indicated 

 as unknown or doubtful. It has even been suggested that it was 

 derived from skull and pin, the latter with the sense of spine, but, 

 while quite apt and plausible, such a formation is not in accord- 

 ance with verbal development. It is prob- 

 ably, if not certainly, a derivative of the 

 old Latin Scorpccna and Scorpio, and cog- 

 nate with the modern modifications, amongst 

 which is the French as well as the English 

 Scorpion. Scorpion is still one of the names 

 for it in France, although according to 

 Moreau, one in more frequent use by 

 the fishermen is Diablc de iner or Sea Devil. Scorpion or Sea 

 Scorpion is also applied to it in England. Now, the word Sculpin 

 is employed in England for a Callionymid or Dragonet. At one 

 time, however, it must have been used for Cottids, inasmuch as, 

 besides its general use in North America, the name was taken to 

 Barbados and aptly given to a near relative {Scorpccna plumicri) of 

 the Scorpccna of the ancients and the modern inhabitants of the bor- 



Fig. 49. — Skull of Miller's- 

 thumb (after Girard). 



Fig. 50. — Skull of fresh 

 water Miller's-thumb. 



