40 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



it is freely eaten by the Norwegians. Captain Atwood informs me that he never 

 saw a specimen of this fish on the southern shore of Massachusetts Bay. The fisher- 

 men haye an erroneous opinion that the spines of this species are very poisonous. 

 weighs from one to five pounds, 



Greenland, Fabricius. Gulf of St. Lawrence, Richardson. Maine, Wood. 

 Massachusetts, Stoeer, New York, Dekay. 



GENUS X. GASTEKOSTEUS, Cuv. 



Body without scales, more or less plated on the sides ; one dorsal fin with free 

 spines. Ventral fin with one strong spine, and no other rays ; bones of the pelvis 

 forming a shield, pointed behind ; branchiostegous rays three. 



Gasterosteus biaculeatus, MitchilL 

 The TwO'Spined Siicklebach 



(Plate VIIL Fia. 2, 3.) 



Gasterosteus UaculeatuSj Two-spined Stlcklebach^ Mitchill, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. of N. Y., i. p. 430, pi. Ij fig. 10. 

 « « " " Dekay, Report, p. 65, pi. 3, fig. 8. 



« " " " Stoeee, Mem. of Amer. Acad., New Series, ii. p. 314. 



" " " " Stoker, Synopsis, p. 62. 



" « « " H. E. Storee, Bost. Journ, Nat. Hist., vi. p. 260. 



Color^ The living fish is of an olive-green color above, lighter upon the sides, 

 silvery beneath. Gill-covers silvery, spotted with fuliginous. Pupils black ; irides 

 silvery. Fins colorless ; in the dead specimens yellowish. 



Description. Body oblong, compressed, becoming abruptly very slender at the base 

 of the tail. On each side of the body are about thirty transverse horny plates, the 

 posterior of which are the narrower ; these plates are indistinctly striated. The lateral 

 line is situated high up on the back ; it takes the curve of the body, and is lost in the 

 carina on the side of the tail The head is less than one fourth the length of the body ; 

 above it is bony and granulated, as in the Prionoti^ and flattened. The mouth is pro- 

 tractile. The jaws are equal, and furnished with numerous minute teeth. The eyes 

 are large and circular. The nostrils are large, and situated about half way between 

 the eye and the snout. The opercula are covered with radiating stride, as in the 

 Syngnathi A broad silvery plate bounds the branchial orifice posteriorly. On each side 

 of the base of the tail is a distinct membranous carina. There are two distinct spines 

 of about equal size situated upon the dorsum anterior to the dorsal fin ; these spines 

 aie broad at their base, strongly serrated on their sides, very acute at their extremity, 



