290 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



Family COTTID.E. 

 The S'-uljiins. 



Form elongated, the head broad and rather fiat. Body naked, with 

 prickles, or with a few scales or bony plates ; never covered with reg- 

 ularly arranged scales. Teeth on jaws, usually also on vomer and pala- 

 tines. A narrow bony stay running beneath the eye from the suborbital 

 to the preopercle. Spines of the dorsal fin usually slender. Lateral 

 line continuous. Ventral rays usually less than I, 5. 



A family which contains a large number of genera and species living 

 mostly along the sea-shores of northern regions. In our rivers and the 

 Great Lakes are found a few species of small fishes placed under two 

 genera of this family. 



Gill membranes broadly united with the isthmus. Slit behind the last 

 gill very small or wanting. Cottus, p. 290. 



Gill membranes nearly free from the isthmus. A small but evident 

 slit behind the fourth gill. Triglopsis, p. 292. 



Genus COTTUS Linn. 



Head and anterior part of the body heavy. Body naked or nearly so. 

 Dorsal spines slender, six to nine in number. Ventral rays I, 8 or I, 4. 

 Head armed with feeble preopercular spines. Gill opening widely sep- 

 arated by the intervening isthmus. Palatines usually, but not always, 

 without teeth. 



1. Palatine teeth present; ventrals I, 4, the spine being obscure. 



a. Skin of upper surface with coarse prickles. ricei, * p. 290. 

 aa. Skin smooth, or with a few prickles in the axil only. 



bairdi, p. 291. 



2. No palatine teeth ; ventrals I, 3. 



Dorsal rays VII, 19; anal rays 13. pollicaris, p. 292. 



b. Dorsal rays VIII, 17 ; anal rays 13. spilotus, p. 292. 

 Dorsal rays VI, 15; anal rays 11. hoyi, p. 292. 



The species of fresh- water sculpins have not been sufliciently studied. 

 Some of them are extremely rare and the finding of additional specimens 

 may result in reducing the number of nominal species. 



'■■ Cottus eicei Nelson. 



Utanidea spilota, Jordan and Gilbert, 1882,5, 694 (not of Cope.), U. ricei, op. vit. 953. 



Head rather wide and flat above. Eyes directed upward. Width of mouth three in 

 length of head. Teeth on paLitines. Body contracted at the base of the tail. Head in 

 length three and three fifths; depth five and one-third. Opercular spine strong, as long as 

 the diameter of the eye and curved upwards like a cow's horn. Bones of the head cavern- 

 ous. Dorsal rays VIII, 17; anal rays 12 or 13. Color olive, speckled with darker. Length 

 two and one-half inches. A rare fish living in the deep water of Lakes Michigan and On- 

 tario. Taken at Evanston, Illinois. Has not actually been yet taken in Indiana waters. 

 Some of these deep water species may be thrown up on shores after storms, or may be found 

 in the stomachs of recently captured deep water fishes. All such specimens should be 

 carefully preserved. 



