NOTES ON CERTAIN FEATURES OF THE LIFE HIS- 

 TORY OF THE ALASKAN FRESHWATER SCULPIN 



By barton a. BEAN and ALFRED C. WEED, 

 Of the Division of Fishes, U. S. National Museum 



Shortly after the publication of Doctor Gill's paper ^ on the habits 

 of the freshwater Cottids of North America, there was received at 

 the U. S. National Museum a small lot of Blobs collected at Loring, 

 Alaska, by Mr. Fred Patching, superintendent of the Fortmann 

 hatchery. These fish were interesting by reason of their stomach 

 contents, a table of which is given on the last page of this article, 

 and for the observations on their habits, an account of which is 

 given in Mr. Patching's letter to Mr. E. L. Goldsborough, here 

 copied in part: 



"The Blob or Bullhead I consider very destructive to the Salmon 

 eggs and in all probability to the fry in the earlier stages. I don't 

 suppose they catch very many fuller grown Salmon, although the 

 chances are that they manage to capture a few all the time, when- 

 ever they find them in schools or cornered up. 



"I am sending you by express some specimens which may prove 

 interesting ; one showing the number of eggs a small Blob can eat 

 and also the size of fry he can catch; the other showing that this, 

 fish is not particular when it is hungry, as it will eat even another of 

 its kind. The two w^ere washed ashore dead in just the position 

 they are now. The eggs in the first mentioned specimen were prob- 

 ably some of the bait used in the trap (Silver ? Salmon eggs) and 

 simply show the number a fish of that size can hold. 



"Until we made traps I had no idea there were so many Bullheads 

 in this stream [Helm Bay Stream]. One morning we caught 2,700 

 in three small traps, and in twenty-five days the total catch of Blobs 

 was 31,000. If they only make way with one egg each a day the 

 loss would soon be great. 



"I have never kept any accurate account of the number of Blobs 

 caught here nor made any careful examination of their stomachs, 

 but have only observed enough to satisf}^ myself that they were ene- 

 mies of the Salmon and should be destroyed whenever caught. I 



^"The Millers-thumb and its habits." Theodore Gill. Smithsonian Mis- 

 cellaneous Collections, Volume 52, (Quarterly Issue, Volume 5, Part i), pages 

 101-116. 



457 



