FAMILY TRIGLIDZ — COTTUS. 5] 
our species be identical with that of Europe, it has a wide geographical distribution. On the 
American coast, it ranges from Brazil to Newfoundland. 
By means of its immense pectorals, it is enabled to spring from the ocean, and support 
itself for some time in the air. This is often done to escape its enemies. It feeds on various 
small crustacea. 
GENUS COTTUS. Cuvier. 
Body without scales. Ventrals under the pectorals, and with three or four rays. Teeth 
velvet-like, on the jaws and anterior part of the vomer ; palatines smooth. Head large, 
depressed. Body gradually tapering to the tail. Opercle or preopercle armed with 
spines, occasionally both. Dorsals distinct, or slightly connected. Branchial rays six. 
No air-bladder. 
Ozs. Cuvier has enumerated and described sixteen species. A few inhabit fresh-water 
lakes and streams, but the greater part are oceanic, inhabiting the northern seas. 
THE COMMON BULL-HEAD. 
_Corrus VIRGINIANUS. 
PLATE V. FIG. 13.—(STATE COLLECTION ) 
Scorpius virginianus. Wit.ucusy, Hist. Pisc. App. p. 25, pl. 10, fig. 15. 
Cottus scorpius, Sea Toad. Scuceprr, Beobachtungen, etc. Vol. 8, p. 145. 
Ejighteen-spined Bull-head, C. 18-spinosus. Mircn. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Vol. 1, p. 380. 
Le Grand Chaboisseau & 18 épines de V Amérique du nord. Cuv. et Vat. Hist. Poiss. Vol. 4, p. 181. 
The Common Sculpin, C. virginianus. Storer, Fishes of Massachusetts, p. 18. 
Characteristics. Very large. Spine of the preopercle reaching the pomt of the opercle. 
Pectorals very broad, and rounded. Length, 12-18 inches. 
Description. Head broad, channelled above, and equal to one-third the length of the 
body. The head is furnished with robust recurved spines in the following order: One near 
each nostril; one over each orbit, and one on the nape of the neck on each side. In addition 
to these, there are three on the preopercle, the uppermost of which is an inch long, the lower 
directed forwards ; and one on the subopercle, which in fact makes a total of twenty spines 
instead of eighteen. Gape of the mouth very large, and capable of still farther dilatation at 
the will of the animal. Fine card teeth on both jaws, in broad bands ; also on the vomer. 
Tongue broad and smooth. Eyes large, and furnished with prominent orbits. Nostrils 
small and tubular. The body diminishes gradually from the head, and becomes compressed 
towards the tail. 
The first dorsal fin spinous, longer than high ; the second ray longest. A very short inter- 
val separates it from the second, which is long, not as elevated as the first, and feebly 
