46 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[14.] 4. Cottus octodecimspinosus. (Mitchill.) The Sculpin. 



Scorpius Virginianus, Wiltoughby, t. x., 15. 



Le Grand Chaboisseau a dix-huit epines de l'Amerique du Nord. Cuv. et Vai. , iv., 181. 



This species has been confounded by several naturalists with the European 

 C. scorpius, but it is quite distinct and of a considerably larger size. Its preoper- 

 cular spine is longer than in that species, its point equalling or surpassing the 

 spinous extremity of the gill-cover. The spines of its dorsal are, also, strong 

 and pungent, instead of being flexible ; and it differs much in its viscera from the 

 European species. The stomach is a large thin bag, and the six cseca are so short 

 as to look like a fringe : in C. scorpius the coats of the stomach are thick, and the 

 pylorus is surrounded by eight cseca. The Sculpin* abounds on the coasts of the 

 United States, and is also plentiful at Newfoundland. It is a pity that Cuvier did 

 not retain the original specific name given by Willoughby, who figured it correctly ; 

 it is preferable to octodecimspinosus, which may lead to error, there being, in fact, 

 twenty spines on the head. C. scorpius has exactly the same number, ten on each 

 side, viz., one at the nostril, one over the orbit, one on the nape, three on the pre- 

 operculum, one on the operculum, one on the suboperculum, and two on the scapular 

 bones. 



Fins.— Br. 6; D. 8 or 9/ — 1/15; A. 14; C. 12; P. 18; V. 1/3. (Hist desPoiss.) 



[15.] 5. Cottus Grcenlandicus. (Cuvier.) Greenland Bull-head. 



Cottus scorpius. Fabricius. Fauna GroenlanJica, p. 156. 



Le Chaboisseau du Greenland (Cottus Grcenlandicus). Cuv. et Val., iv., p. 185. 



Kaniok. Grcknlanders. 



It has been usual to enumerate the quadrupeds and birds of Greenland as 

 belonging rather to Europe than America ; but the fish existing in Davis's Straits, 

 even on the Greenland side, associate more naturally with the American ones. 

 The C. Grcenlandicus is known only by Fabricius's description, which agrees well 

 with the Sculpin of the United States above mentioned, except that he counts 

 only sixteen spines on the head and shoulder, and mentions obtuse, rough tubercles 



* Quasi Scorpion. 



