480 ftllTCHILL ON THE FISHES OF NEW-YORK. 



of the damage they do to the clams. Yet they are not employed fofr 

 human food. When taken in seines they are usually left to putrify on 

 the sands. Though sometimes the fishermen take out their livers for 

 the purpose of conversion into oil. 



A full grown individual of this species weighs about a hundred pounds. 



CYCLOPTERUS. LUMP SUCKER. 



Generic character. 



Head obtuse. Teeth in the jaws. Tongue short and thick. Body 

 thick without scales. Ventral fins united into a circle. 



Blue Lump-fish. (Cyclopterus cceruleus.) With back and sides of a 

 deep blue, thickly marked by small inky elevations ; with a belly of a 

 pea green and white ; and with three rows of lumps or cartilaginous pro- 

 cesses on each side. 



The individual now before me was taken in the bay of New-York, 

 with the shad, on the 11th of April, 1315. He was of a remarkably 

 thick and chubby form. His length was nine inches ; depth five and 

 one half ; and breadth four. He felt like a lump of gelatinous matter ; 

 and looked semi-transparent when held up to the light. But the skin 

 was universally roughened by warts, or excrescences of different sizes. 



There were irregular lumps of a cartilaginous kind, forming a ridge 

 along his arched back; and which seemed to have taken the place of 

 anterior dorsal rays. At the termination of this lumpy ridge, there was 

 a broad step or stage, of about an inch long and an inch broad, whose 

 aides were armed with similar elevations and lumps. Behind this, and 

 along the descending curve of the back, was the dorsal fin, consisting of 

 twelve broad and cartilaginous rays. I have since revised my description 

 from a second fresh specimen, taken at the city of New-York, on the 4th 

 of May. 



