III. COTTOIDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 5 
Preserved specimens exist in the cabinet of the Boston Society of Natural History ; 
in the State Museum, at Albany; and at the Smithsonian Institution. 
VEE. COPTUS VISCOSUS, Harp. 
Prate II. Figs. 1 and 2. 
Syn. Cottus viscosus, HALD. Suppl. to a Monogr. of Limn., &e., 1840, p. 83.—Grrarp, Proce. Amer. Assoc. 
Ady. Se. II., 1850, p. 411; and, Proc. Bost. Soe. Nat. Hist. III., 1850, p. 189. 
In 1840, this species was announced to the scientific world rather than described. 
The author having no means of establishing direct comparisons, could not draw an 
accurate distinctive diagnosis. He knew not Mr. Heckel’s C. gracilis, and had only 
before him an incomplete description of C. gobio, from Europe. 
The specimen figured, is not quite four inches long. Since the latter has been 
drawn, we have seen another, measuring nearly four inches and a half. 
The general form is sub-cylindrical, of rather stout appearance. The width, near 
the head, is greater than the depth, and sometimes both of these dimensions are 
equal. The greatest depth under the first dorsal, is comprised five times and a half 
in the entire length, and the least depth a little more than fifteen times. The head 
forms the two-ninths of the length of the fish. The occipital region is depressed, 
but flat; the nose convex, and the snout obtuse. The mouth is very little cleft, and 
its angles do not extend farther back than the anterior rim of the eye. The lips 
are very fleshy. The eyes themselves are of medium size, and circular in form ; their 
diameter is contained five times in the length of the head. The tubular nostrils 
are nearer the eyes than the extremity of the jaws. The preopercular spine is stout 
and prominent, acute, directed obliquely upwards. In some cases there exists a 
second, very small, slender, acute spine, immediately under the base of the first, 
having its point directed vertically downwards. That on the inferior angle of the 
subopercular is very conspicuous, acute, directed as usual downwards and forwards. 
The gill openings are separated, below, by an isthmus of three-eighths of an inch. 
The anterior margin of the first dorsal is distant one inch and a quarter from 
the extremity of the snout. It is rather low, uniformly arched, and composed of 
eight rays, the third, fourth, and fifth, nearly equal, and longest. The mem- 
brane between that fin and the second dorsal is quite low. The second dorsal is 
convex like the first, containing seventeen undivided rays on a base of one and 
an eighth of an inch, twice and a half as long as the base of the anterior fin. The 
origin of the anal is under the fourth ray of the second dorsal and is more convex 
than the latter. It is composed of twelve undivided rays, the last, as in many 
instances, double, opposite to the fourteenth of the second dorsal. The longest rays 
of both second dorsal and anal, are of equal length, but the membrane of the 
latter fin is more deeply notched, so as to make it appear shorter. The caudal is 
rounded posteriorly, and forms two-elevenths of the entire length. It is composed 
of eleven well developed rays, with four short ones above and three below. The 
nine middle ones are bifurcated on the last two-thirds of their length, and each 
branch again subdivided near the tip without solution of continuity; this latter 
