COW-FACED SCULPIN. 993 



is there to watch them is irresistible ; for it returns to them after being driven away, 

 and stays on gnard from the time the eggu are laid in April antil they are hatched in 

 Jnly. 



" The eggs are laid near the shore in shallow water, bat the fish seems to have fore- 

 thought; for they are never laid above the low water mark of July, heace in April or 

 May one must look in deeper water for them than in July. 



" When the eggs are laid they are mingled with a clear, thick substance like the white 

 of egg ; but this sabstance hardens almost as soon as it is brought in contact with water, 

 and is a true hydraulic cement, serving to fasten the eggs firmly together, and to attach 

 them to whatever they are pressed against. So firmly does this cement hold the eggs, 

 that they will be broken before separating from each other or from the stone to which- 

 the cluster is attached. 



" Now, if the eggs in the middle of the cluster should hatch first, the fishes would not 

 only find it hard to get out, but would loosen the cluster from the atone. This does not 

 occur, but first the outside layer of eggs hatches, and then the next, and so on till all 

 are hatched. It may seem strange that eggs laid at one time should not all hatch 

 together ; bat observation has shown that heat hastens and cold retards the hatching of 

 the eggs of cold blooded aniAals as well as those having warm blood. The order in 

 which the Star Gazer's eggs are hatched becomes intelligible from what has just been 

 said, when it is remembered that the outside layer of eggs is corstantly laved by the 

 surrounding water, and is first warmed by it, while the deeper layers are not so soon 

 affected," 



This species is occasionally taken with the hook in our clear streams. 

 It bites readily, and is, in its way, voracious. In the aquarium its 

 movements are interesting, much like those of the Darters ; but it is 

 unable to endure foul water. It is too small to be used for food. The 

 largest specimens we have seen have been taken in cave streams, in 

 which waters the species is especially abundant. It does not, however, 

 go far into the caves, and its eyes are fully developed. 



162. Ubanidea spilota Cope. 

 Cow-faced Sculpin. 



Uranidea spilota, Copk, Prco. Acad. Nat. Sci, Phila.,'lg65, 82.— Bean, Proc. U. S.Nat. 



Mas., 1881, 127. 

 CoUopsia spilotua, Jordan, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., x, 1877, 1, and Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 



Phila,, 1877, 61. 

 Tauridea spilota, Joedan and Rice, Man. Vert., 2d Ed., 1878, 225. 

 Cotiopsis ricH, Nelson, Bull. Ills. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1876. 



Description — Body moderately elongate, depressed, the head especially so, quite 

 abruptly contracted opposite the base of anal, the body behind head nearly as deep 

 as wide ; body behind the vent rather slender, subterete, giving a tadpole-like form ; 

 jaws about equal, the lower narrower, but projecting in front; month rather contracted, 

 the maxillary scarcely reaching to eye ; palatine teeth ; eye i\ in head, half wider than 

 the interorbital space, about equal to snout ; eyes close together, entirely superior ; head 

 very broad and flat, as broad or broader than long, including the perpendicular spines, 



63 



