Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology 7 



ascend the streams far if at all above tidewater. Their movements, 

 like those of most cottoid fishes, are rapid and angular. Upon 

 coming to rest after a short dart through the water, they frequently 

 half bury themselves on the bottom, throwing mud or sand over 

 their bodies by a wriggling movement. The head is often widely 

 dilated when the fish is seized, the strongly antlered preopercular 

 spines projecting outward as weapons of defense. When held in 

 the hand, they were heard to emit a low deep-toned grunt, the 

 belly rapidly vibrating. 



The young feed largely on crustaceans, particularly small 

 crabs. The only adult of the subspecies opened, a specimen 182 

 mm. long to caudal, from Santa Barbara, had also eaten a crab. 

 (An adult of L. a. armatus from Florence, Oregon, taken in the 

 mouth of the Suislaw River, contained fish scales in its stomach, 

 probably from a salmon cannery at that place.) 



