FISH OF ONTARIO. 101 



openings restricted to tlie sides ; ventral fins reduced or wanting, the pelvic 

 bones usually elongate. Spinous dorsal small or wanting ; air bladder 

 without duct. 



Fishes mostly inactive and depending on their tough skin or bony or 

 spinous armature for their protection. 



Suborder LORICATI. 



Familv COTTID/E. (The Sculpins.) 



Body more or less elongate, the head usually large and depressed ; 

 eyes high; bony stay conspicuous, but not covering the cheek; preopercle 

 armed ; teeth in villiform bands ; maxillary simple ; gills three and a half 

 or four; gill membranes connected, often joined to isthmus. Body naked, 

 or irregularly scaled, or warty, never evenly scaled ; lateral line present. 

 Dorsals usually separate, the spines slender ; anal without spines ; pectorals 

 large, with broad procurrent base, the lower rays simple ; ventrals thoracic, 

 sometimes wanting, never united. Pseudobranchia? present. Vertebrae 

 numerous, thirty-five to fifty. 



Group COTTIN^. 



Genus COTTUS. (Fresh-water Sculpins.) 



Body fusiform. Head feebly armed ; skin smooth or more or less 

 velvety, its prickles, if present, not bony or scalelike; villiform teeth on 

 jaws and vomer and sometimes on palatines. Gill openings separated by 

 a wide isthmus over which the membranes do not form a fold ; no slit 

 behind the fourth gill. Branchiostegals six. Dorsals nearly or quite 

 separate, the first of six to nine slender spines ; ventrals moderate, each 

 with a short, concealed spine and four soft rays. Lateral line present, 

 usually more or less chain-like, sometimes incomplete. Preopercle with 

 a simple spine at its angle, which is usually curved upward, its base more 

 or less covered by skin, very rarely obsolete, usually two or three spines 

 turned downward below this ; subopercle usually with a concave spine 

 turned downward. Vertebrae, 10 + 23 33. Pyloric caeca, about four. 



Subgenus PEGEDICTUS. 



(107) Miller's Thumb. Blob. 



(Cottus ictalops.) 



Body rather robust, gradually tapering to the tail ; head very broad ; 

 preopercle with a short, sharp, straightish spine, turned upward and back- 

 ward, with two smaller spines below it ; skin usually smooth, sometimes 

 with minute prickles behind axil of pectoral ; spinous dorsal becins slightly 

 behind end of head, separated from second dorsal by a deep notch ; second 

 dorsal about two and one-third times longer than first and one-third 

 longer than anal base. Pectoral, ventral and caudal fins well developed. 



