38 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



The range of individual species is more remarkable in this family than in the 

 more extensive one of Percoidese, as is evident when we consider the number of 

 species which cross the Atlantic, and in this respect there is some analogy between 

 the Cottoidece and some of the higher classes of animals, it having been observed 

 that the quadrupeds and birds common to the Old and New Worlds are species 

 that have a high northern range. Trigla pini exists in the Mediterranean, on the 

 Atlantic coasts of France, and at New York. Dactylopterus volitans is common 

 in all parts of the Mediterranean, and ranges on the American coast from the 

 Brazils to the banks of Newfoundland, probably pursuing the course of the Gulf 

 Stream. Aspidophorus Europceus is found in the Baltic, English Channel, the 

 Iceland Sea, and Davis's Straits. Scorpcsna porcus ranges throughout the Medi- 

 terranean, and from the English Channel to the Canaries, and it also occurs at 

 New York. Sebastes Norvegicus extends from the sea of Norway to that of 

 Greenland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It seldom approaches the surface, 

 living habitually at a great depth. Gasterosteus leiurus, which may be reckoned 

 an anadromous fish, prevails all over Europe, and has been taken in the 

 Baltic, and also in Greenland, if one of the very nearly resembling American 

 species has not been, in the latter case, confounded with it. The G. trachurus has 

 probably an equally extensive range. Cottus gobio, a fresh-water species known 

 throughout Siberia, and in Europe from Italy to Sweden, is, according to Fabricius, 

 also an inhabitant of Greenland ; but we need careful comparisons to establish 

 the identity of the Greenland species : our C. cognatus, which can scarcely be dis- 

 tinguished from C. gobio, inhabits Great Bear Lake. C. quadricornis is common 

 to the Baltic, the Icy Sea at the mouth of the Jenisei, and Lake Baikal. Besides 

 some that have already been particularised, several Cottoidese are common to the 

 Mediterranean and Baltic, particularly of the genus Trigla, as T. lineata, hirundo, 

 lyra, gurnardus, and cuculus ; and also Scorpcsna scrofa. Cottus scorpius, 

 C. bubalus, and Gasterosteus Spinachia are common to the Baltic and North Sea; 

 while Platycephalus fuscus has an extensive range in the Pacific, being found at 

 Port Jackson, Otaheite, and Japan. 



But one specimen of the very singular genus Oreosoma has been seen. It was 

 brought from the Atlantic by Peron. The cheeks are but very imperfectly covered 

 by the sub-orbitars, hence it scarcely belongs to this family, though it appears to 

 have a greater affinity to it than to any other. 



