THE FISHES OF NEW JERSEY. _ 371 
A bright red fish of the northern seas which is occasionally 
taken off our north shore in deep water. It reaches a length of 
18 inches, and is a valuable food-fish. I have no examples. 
Sebastes norvegicus Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 816. 
Family COTTID. 
The Sculpins. 
Body moderately elongate, fusiform or compressed, tapering 
backward from head. Head usually broad and depressed. Eyes 
placed high. Teeth equal, in villiform or cardiform bands in 
jaws and often on vomer and palatines. Premaxillaries protrac+ 
tile. Maxillary without supplemental bone. Interorbital space 
usually narrow. . A bony stay connecting suborbital with pre- 
opercle, usually covered by skin. Upper angle of preopercle 
usually with I or more spinous processes, head again sometimes 
wholly unarmed. Gill-membranes broadly connected, often joined 
to isthmus. Gills 3% to 4, slit behind last small, often obsolete. 
Gill-rakers short, tubercle-like or obsolete. Pseudobranchize 
present. Vertebrze numerous, 30 to 50. Scapular arch normal. 
Myodome developed. Actinosts large, partly intervening be- 
tween hypercoracoid. Ribs sessile on vertebrz. Pyloric cceca 
usually in small number, 4 to 8. Air-vessel commonly wanting. 
Body naked or variously armed with scales, prickles or bony 
plates, but never uniformly scaled. Lateral line present, simple, 
sometimes chain-like. ‘Dorsal fins separate, or somewhat con- 
nected, spines VI to XVIII, usually slender, sometimes con- 
cealed in skin, and soft part elongate. Anal similar to soft dorsal, 
without spines. Caudal separate, rounded. Pectorals large, with 
broad procurrent bases, rays mostly simple, and upper sometimes 
branched. Ventrals thoracic, rarely entirely wanting, insertion 
well forward, and usually I, 3, to I, 5. 
A large family of rock-pool and shore-fishes of northern re- 
gions, many also in fresh water, and others found at great depths 
in the sea. They are mostly of small size and singular aspect, and 
none are valued as food. 
