300 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



Page 52, before Sebastes Norvegica. 

 [127,] 1. ScoRPiENA bufo. (Cuvier.) Sea Toad. 



La scorphie crapaud de mer (Scorptena bufo). Cuv. et Val., iv., p. 306. 



Mr. Audubon brought a specimen from Newfoundland of this fish, which is an 

 inhabitant of the Caribbean Sea and coast of Brazil, and will, no doubt, be here- 

 after detected in the intervening sea of the United States. I have received no 

 account of its habits, nor is anything said on that subject in the Histoire des 

 Poissons. 



Cuvier observes that the most obvious distinctive mark of the sea-toad consists in the axilla 

 of its black pectoral being dotted with round milk-white spots, a character which is not de- 

 stroyed by immersion in spirits, and is very conspicuous in our specimen, though it is injured 

 elsewhere. The barbels, and the soft integuments of the head in particular, are decayed, so 

 that the spines and ridges of the cranium are much exposed, and a greater number may be 

 reckoned than Cuvier enumerates in his description of scorpcena scrofa, but the principal ones 

 occupy the same situations as in that species, though they are more prominent and robust. 

 The nasal spines are not denticulated, which is the only circumstance in which the Newfound- 

 land fish does not correspond with the description of bufo in the Histoire des Poissons. Thirty- 

 two or thirty-three spines may be reckoned on each side of the head and shoulder, viz., one on 

 the nasal bone ; five on the elevated bony margin of the upper half of the orbit, the lowest one 

 before and behind being the sharp terminations of the bone ; three in a row extending back- 

 wards from the orbital ridge to the nape, occupying the position of the cranial ridges in the 

 cotti, and flanking a deep circular depression on the top of the skull ; five in a row parallel to 

 the above, commencing close to the orbit, passing over the temples and ending on the shoulder ; 

 the posrerior part of this row is doubled, adding two spines more ; four divergent ones on the 

 anterior sub-orbilar; three on the ridge of the second sub-orbitar which traverses the cheek 

 obliquely ; six on the preoperculum, as in scorpcena porous, the principal one being at the 

 angle, and the two next in size standing at equal distances a little way below it ; two on the 

 operculum, tipping its divergent, obtuse keels which are slightly furrowed longitudinally ; the 

 acute points of the suboperculum and interoperculum, pointing downwards and in contact with 

 each other, are not spinous ; the thirty-second spine tips the humeral bone immediately above 

 the pectoral, and the edge of the bone is widely notched above the spine, so that the upper 

 corner of the notch, which is acute and prominent, may be taken for another spine. The 

 bands of teeth on the jaws, vomer, and palate-bones are narrow. The upper and lower 

 pharyngeals are also toothed en velours. 



Fins.— Br. 7—7; P. 20; D. 12/9; A. 3/5; V. 1/5; C. 14f. 



