58 NEW- YORK FAUNA. 



GENUS SCORP^NA. Linneus. 



Head spinous and tubercular as in the jn-eceding genus, hut laterally compressed. Dorsal 

 fin undivided. Seven branchial rays. Body ivith scales. Cutaneous processes adhering 

 to the head and sides. Teeth similar in shape and position to the preceding. 



THE SMALL SEA SCORPION. 



ScOHPjENA porcus. 



ScorpcEna porcus. LiNNEUs. 



La petite Scorpene brime. Cuv. et Val. Hist. Poiss. Vol. 4, p. 300. 



Characteristics. Brown ; beneath rosaceous, variegated with hghter colors. Scales very 

 small. Length 8-10 inches. 



Description. Body oblong; dorsal line curved ; abdomen often prominent. Nostrils placed 

 behind each other, and nearer to the eye than to the end of the snout. Head shorter and body 

 deeper than in S. scrofa. Scales very small and rough. Sixty are enumerated in a longitu- 

 dinal series, and forty in a vertical line ; longer than broad, minutely striated, and ciliated on 

 their outer margins, and with eigiit or nine plaits at their bases. Six small cutaneous slips at 

 the end of the snout, two on the orbit, and one on the crest of the cranium ; a few very 

 minute ones on the cheek, but none on the cheeks or sides of the body. The first spinous ray 

 of the dorsal fin one-third less than the second, and thence gently increasing to the eleventh ; 

 the soft portion lialf the extent of the spinous part. Anal fin with three stout short spines. 

 Caudal rounded. 



Color. Brown, tinged with reddish beneath, which also appears on the ventrals and anal. 



Length, 8-0 - 10-0. 



Fin rays, D. 12.9; P. 18; V. 1.5; A. 3.5; C. 11 i. 



I have never met with this species, and have availed myself of the description given by 

 MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes, who received it from New-York. It is common in the Medi- 

 terranean, and along the southern shores of Europe. It is one of the few fishes which cross 

 the Atlantic. Feeds on the smaller Crustacea. 



