Catalogue of the Fishes of Connecticut. 65 



*64. Anarrhicas lupus, Linn., Wolf-Fish, Long Island Sound? 

 *65. Gobius alepidotus, Bosc, Variegated Goby, Bridgeport. 



Family Lophidce. 



*66, Lophius piscatorius, Linn., Angler, Wide Gab, Bridge- 

 port and Stonington. 



*67Nl)heironectes laevigatus, Cuv., Smooth Mouse-Fish, Long 

 Island Sound. 



*68. Cheironectes gibbus, Mitchill and Dekay, Gibbous Mouse- 

 Fish, Long Island Sound. 



*69. Batrachus variegatus, Le Sueur, Toad-Fish, common. 



Ground, in our Sound. This and the preceding species may, as some naturalists 

 imagine, be the same. But as Dr. Dekay justly remarks, " it is invariably smaller 

 than the other species," and I may add, it is singular that one of this species never 

 reaches half the size of the preceding. Among all that I have seen of the latter, 

 not one has measured over 13 inches in length, and very rarely one is less than 12 

 inches, while the Blenny is more than double the length, besides the difference in 

 color. The fin rays are so variable in number that nothing oan be decided from 

 that source alone. 



*64. As the wolf-fish is not uncommon at Long Island, and all the shores east of 

 us, it is doubtless a resident of our Sound, but as I have not been so fortunate as 

 to obtain one, I have inserted it with a query .' 



*65. The variegated goby was taken at Bridgeport, by Capt. Roundy, from an 

 oyster. The latter, I believe, had been brought by vessel load from New Jersey. 

 Dr. Dekay mentions its being taken in the harbor of New York, and its radial for- 

 mula was, D. 6—14, P. 17, V. 12 or 13, A. 11 , C. 19. The rays of my specimen 

 were, D. 6—12, P. 13, V. both fins serrated, A. 10, C. 16. I sent my fish to Dr. 

 Storer, for the B. S. N. History, and he decided it to be this species, though differ- 

 ing in several respects from Dr. Dekay 's figure and description. It is the G. vini- 

 dipollidusof Mitchill. 



^66. Of this monstrously deformed fish, I obtained a large specimen from Bridge- 

 port. Length 3 feet 8 inches, width front of pectorals 22 inches, from ends of 

 pfectorals 37 inches. Although it continued alive out of water about 24 hours, I 

 took from its stomach subsequently, a large half pail full of fishes, of various spe- 

 cies, such as tom-cods, cunners, bass fry, &o. ; of the latter, some were as perfect 

 as when swallowed, notwithstanding the lapse of time mentioned. One taken at 

 Stonington, writes Mr. Trumbull, was 45 inches in length. 



*67. This mouse-fish, Mr. Nettleton, of Orange, informs me he has taken in this 

 county. Its range is said by Dr. Dekay, to be from Massachusetts to Charleston. 



*68. A dried specimen of this fish was brought to Bridgeport for me, (found at 

 Montauk Point by a fisherman,) but by accident in passing through too many hands 

 it was lost. 



*69. The eggs of the voracious toad-fish are very unusually large for a fish so 

 comparatively small. It is not, as is generally supposed by naturalists, confined to 

 still water, shallow and muddy. I have seen a very large one caught with a hook, 

 on rocky bottom in the middle of our Sound, at what is called the Middle Ground. 



Vol. xLvii, No. 1.— April-June, 1844. 9 



