l82 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 50 



The popular names are many and several somewhat significant. 

 Besides Lumpfish and Lump alone, Lumpsucker is given, and recalls 

 both the "lump}' form" of the body and the suctorial character of 

 the ventral fins. Paddlecock or Paidlecock, as well as Cock-paidle, 

 Scotch names, are reminders of the crest of the back, which has 

 some resemblance to a cock's comb, as well as the toad, whose skin 

 its own is not unlike ; the sexual differences, so apparent when 

 mature, have obtained contrasting names, for the female is distin- 

 guished as the Hen-paidle, and the sexes are frequently spoken of 

 as cock or hen, or, on account of the differences of color, Red-paidle 

 and Blue-paidle. Other names less used are Sea-owl and Hush- 

 bagaty. Lumpfish is the generally accepted name of the Americans. 



Lumpfish is evidently cognate with Lumpfisk of the Baltic shore. 

 Lump of the German and Netherlanders, and Lomp of the French. 

 Paidle and Paddle have been ascribed to the verb to paddle, but are 

 much more likely cognate with the Dutch and Danish Padde, the 

 name of the toad. One of the Danish names of the Lumpfish, in- 

 deed, is Hafpadde or Sea-toad. 



IV 



The Lumpsucker's distribution in the North Atlantic is wide both 

 in a horizontal and vertical direction. x\s a lover of cold waters, 

 however, its range southward does not extend below the Bay of 

 Biscay along the coast of Europe, nor beyond Chesapeake Bay along 

 the American coast, and there rarely. 1 Its range northward (as else- 

 where) is probably limited by the conditions of its oviposition and 

 development, so that it does not thrive in the high Arctic Ocean. Its 

 chief resorts are along the Scandinavian coasts and those of Scot- 

 land as well as Greenland, and along the northern American shores 

 to Cape Cod. Within such limits, in almost all suitable places, it is 

 one of the most common of fishes. 



It is a "bottom-fish," generally keeping close to or on the bottom, 

 but its range is great, extending from tide-limits to a depth of be- 

 tween ioo and 200 fathoms. The bottom mostlv affected is a rocky 

 or stony one and, by means of its sucker, it often adheres to such 



1 A female lumpfish over 18 inches long was recently obtained by fishermen 

 near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, and carried to Washington as an un- 

 known and curious specimen. Word was sent to the Smithsonian Institution, 

 and Mr. Barton A. Bean went to the wharf and obtained it. None of the 

 observers had ever seen or heard of the like. The specimen is now in the 

 collection of the U. S. National Museum. 



