SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUP] OF FISHES. 357 



Genus COTTUS Linnaeus. Fresh-water Sculpins; Miller's Thumbs; Blobs. 



Small, numerous, and variable sculpins of the colder fresh waters of North 

 America, Asia, and Europe; often abundant in trout streams and feeding largely 

 on trout eggs in season. Form elongate, httle if at all compressed, head with 

 few spines; teeth on jaws, vomer, and (sometimes) palatines; isthmus very wide, 

 the gill-membranes not passing across it; a simple spine at angle of preopercle, 

 usually several spines below and a single concave spine on subopercle; skin smooth, 

 sometimes with feeble prickles; lateral line sometimes deficient; pyloric coeca 

 about 4; dorsal fins separated or joined, the spines slender, 6 to 9 in number; 

 ventrals with 4 soft rays and a concealed spine. Of the numerous American 

 species, only 1 is recognized as inhabiting any of the waters of North Carolina. 

 (Cottus, an old name for tlie miller's tliumb of Europe.) 



308. COTTUS ICTALOPS (Rafinesque). 

 Blob; Miller's Thumb; Mull-head (Va.). 



Pegedictis iclalops Rafinesque, Ichthyologia Oliiensis, 85, 1820; Kentucky. 



Polamocottus carolinas Gill, Proceedings Boston Society of Natural History, 1861, 40; Carolina. 



Cottus ictalops, Jordan & Evermann, 1898, 1950. Bean, 1903, 914; Boilings Creek, N. C. 



Cottus bairdi, Jordan, 18896, 154; South Fork of Swannanoa River and Spring Creek at Hot Springs, N. C. 



Uranidea Carolines, Cope, 18706, 455; French Broad River, Madison County, N. C. 



Diagnosis. — Form robust; depth about .25 length; head .33 length; palatine teeth well 

 developed; isthmus very broad; skin smooth, no axUIary prickles; lateral line continuous or 

 interrupted; dorsal rays vi, 16 to viii, 17, the spinous rays low and weak; anal rays 12; pectorals 

 large, nearly as long as head, and reaching to or beyond origin of soft dorsal. Color: oliva- 

 ceous, with dark bars and spots; fins dark barred or mottled, {ictalops, having an eye like a 

 cat-fish.) 



A species of wide distribution and great variability; ranging from New York 

 to the Dakotas and along the AUeglianies to Alabama. Known only from tribu- 

 taries of the French Broad River in North Carolina, but doubtless occurring also 

 in the headwaters of the Holston and other streams on the western slope of the 

 mountains. Reaches a length of 6 inches, and is a very undesirable inhabitant 

 of the trout streams. 



Family TRIGLID^E. The Sea-robins or Gurnards. 



The sea-robins are found in the tropical and temperate regions of both 

 hemispheres, and some forms occur in great abundance in America, Europe, and 

 Asia. The most striking family features are the head completely enclosed in 

 strong bony plates, the wing-like pectoral fins, and the conversion of the 3 lower- 

 most pectoral rays into long, slender, detached feelers. Body elongate, fusiform, 

 deepest at junction with head; head large and more or less spiny; mouth large, 

 mostly terminal, with bands of small teeth on jaws and sometimes on vomer 

 and palatines; premaxillaries protractile; maxillary slipping under preorbital; 

 no supplementary maxillary; gill-arches 4, gill-rakers various, gill-membranes not 

 attached to isthmus; lateral line present; body covered with scales or bony 

 plates; air-bladder and usually pyloric cceca present; 2 dorsal fins, the spinous 



