58 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 
GENUS SCORPAINA. Linneus. 
Head spinous and tubercular as in the preceding genus, but laterally compressed. Dorsal 
fin undivided. Seven branchial rays. Body with scales. Cutaneous processes adhering 
to'the head and sides. Teeth similar in shape and position to the preceding. 
THE SMALL SEA SCORPION. 
ScoRPENA PORCUS, 
Scorpena porcus. LINNEUS. 
La petite Scorpéne brune. Cuy. et Vau. Hist. Poiss. Vol. 4, p. 300. 
Characteristics. Brown; beneath rosaceous, variegated with lighter colors. Scales very 
small. Length 8 - 10 inches. 
Description. Body oblong; dorsal line curved ; abdomen often prominent. Nostrils placed 
behind each other, and nearer to the eye than to the end of the snout. Head shorter and body 
deeper than in S. scrofa. Scales very small and rough. Sixty are enumerated in a longitu- 
dinal series, and forty in a vertical line; longer than broad, minutely striated, and ciliated on 
their outer margins, and with eight or nine plaits at their bases. Six small cutaneous slips at 
the end of the snout, two on the orbit, and one on the crest of the cranium; a few very 
minute ones on the cheek, but none on the cheeks or sides of the body. The first spinous ray 
of the dorsal fin one-third less than the second, and thence gently increasing to the eleventh ; 
the soft portion half the extent of the spinous part. Anal fin with three stout short spines. 
Caudal rounded. 
Color. Brown, tinged with reddish beneath, which also appears on the ventrals and anal. 
Length, 8°0 - 10°0. 
Fin rays; Di12.95 Ps 185) V¥. 1.55 As 3.0, G21) = 
3° 
I have never met with this species, and have availed myself of the description given by 
MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes, who received it from New-York. It is common in the Medi- 
terranean, and along the southern shores of Europe. It is one of the few fishes which cross 
the Atlantic. Feeds on the smaller crustacea. 
