FISHES OF NEW YORK 635 



been identified from Marseilles, St Jean de Luz, Biarritz, 

 Valence, and Arcachon. 



In the western Atlantic the redfish occurs in numerous locali- 

 ties in deep water from Narragansett bay to Chesapeake bay. 



Family 



Sculpvns 



Group COTTINAE 

 Genus COTTUS (Artedi) Linnaeus 



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 some- 

 times on palatines. Gill openings separated by a wide, isthmus, 

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

 fourth gill. Branchiostegals six. Dorsals nearly or quite sepa- 

 rate, 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 chainlike, sometimes incom- 

 plete. 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 down- 

 ward below this ; subopercle usually with a concave spine turned 

 downward. Vertebrae 10+23=33. Pyloric caeca about four. 

 Fishes of small size, inhabiting clear waters in the northern 

 parts of Europe, Asia and America. The species are extremely 

 numerous and are very difficult to distinguish, all being very 

 similar in form, coloration and habits. 



The species are most destructive to the eggs of salmon and 

 trout. 



Subgenus PEGEDICTIS 



309 Cottus ictalops (Rafinesque) 

 Miller's Thumb; Blob 



Pegedictis ictalops RAFINESQUE, Ichth. Ohien. 85, 1820, spring near Lexing- 



ton, Kentucky. 

 Cottus Richardsoni AGASSIZ, Lake Superior, 300, 1850, Montreal River; 



GIRAKD, Monograph Fresh-Water Cottoids N. A. 39, pi. 1, figs. 1, 2, 



pi. a, figs. 18-21, 1850; GUNTHEB, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. II, 158, 1860. 

 Cottus Bairdii GIRABD, Monograph Fresh- Water Cottoids N. A. 44, pi. 1, 



figs. 5, 6, 1850. 



