g46 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



316 Hemitripterus americanus (Gmelin) 



Sea Raven 



Scorpccna americana Gmelin, L. Syst. Nat. 1220, 1(88. 



Cottus Inspidus Bi.och & Schneider, Syst. Ichth. 63, 1801, New York. 



Scoi-p(ena flava Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 382, pi. II, fig. 8, 



1815. 

 Scorpccna purpurea and rufa Mitchill, Am. Mon-tli. Mag. II, 245, February 



1818. 

 Hemitripterus acadiamis Stoker, Hist. Fish. Mass. 35, pi. VII, fig. 4, 1867. 

 Hemitripterus americanus Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. I'oiss IV, 



2G8, pi. 84, 1829; De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 56, pi. 6, fig. 16, 1842; 



GuNTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. II, 143, 1860; Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 



16 U. S. Nat. Mus. 685, 1883; Bean, 19th Rep. Comm. Fish. N. Y. 251, 



1890; Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 370, 1897; H. M. Smith. Bull. 



IT. S. F. C. 1897, 105, 1898; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. 



Mus. II, 2023, 1898, pi. GCCV, fig. 738, 1900. 



The length of the body is three and three fourths times the 

 depth and two and two thirds times the length of the head. 

 Body villous, the prickles enlarged and tuberclelike along the 

 back and lateral line; nasal spines strong; supraocular ridge 

 much elevated, with dermal flaps and two blunt spines; three 

 pairs of fleshy slips on nasal bones, and two on supraocular 

 ridges; smaller cirri on maxillary, on preorbital, and several on 

 lower jaw; interocular space very deeply concave; two blunt 

 occipital spines on each side, outside of which <are two or three 

 others; opercle small, with a bony ridge; preopercle with two 

 blunt spines, below which are one or two others; lower jaw 

 slightly projecting; maxillary reaching beyond eye, and about 

 half as long as the head; pectorals nearly reaching anal; highest 

 dorsal spine three fifths length of head, as long as caudal; vent- 

 rals reaching half way to anal. 



D. IV, XII-I, 12; A. 13; Lat. 1. 40; vertebrae 16+23. 



Reddish brown, marbled with darker brown, and much varie- 

 gated; yellowish below; fins variegated with light and dark. 

 Atlantic coast of America; chiefly northward from Cape Cod. 



This fish is the Acadian bullhead of Pennant and the yellow 

 Bcorpaena of Mitcliill. According to De Kay the name sea 

 sculpin is sometimes api)lied to this species. Other names given 

 to it are rock toadfish and deep water sculpin. It is found along 

 the east coast from Nova Scotia to Chesapeake bay. 



