SCULPINS AND GURNARDS. 
3°3 
taken alive out of the water. “ Salpa ” is a Spanish word for toad, and 
applied also to species of Batraehidce. “ Johnny ” is applied only to very 
little Sculpins along the shore, notably Oligocottus maculosus. The same 
name is given in the Ohio Valley to fishes of precisely similar habits, 
the Etheostomatidce. “ Biggy-head ” and its Spanish cognate “ Cabezon ” 
are used by the Italians and Spanish about Monterey, Santa Barbara, and 
elsewhere, for different Cottidae. 
Most of the Cottidae feed upon small fishes, and especially Crustacea; 
one species i Enophrys bison , being a vegetable feeder. All take the hook 
readily. The flesh is poor, tough, and dry, and the waste by the removal 
of the head, viscera, and skin is so great that even the poorest people do 
not use them as food. Various sorts (notably Leptocottus armatus') are 
dried by the Chinese, who consider them the poorest of all dried fishes. 
The Sea-robin or Gurnard family, is represented on our Atlantic coast 
by several species, some of them being quite abundant. The most striking 
of them all is the Sea-bat or Flying Gurnard, Dactylopterus volitans , which 
is remarkable on account of its enormous spreading fins, larger than those 
of a flying-fish—wings which, however, are not sufficiently powerful to lift 
the body above the surface of the water, though useful in maintaining the 
equilibrium of the heavy-headed body swimming through the water. The 
colors of the body and of the fins are very brilliant, and the fish is often 
exhibited as a curiosity. It is found along our entire coast south of Cape 
Cod, and in the waters of Brazil; also in the Mediterranean and in the 
neighboring parts of the Eastern Atlantic. 
The most important of the Pacific Sculpins, writes Jordan, is Scorpcen- 
ichthys marmoratus. a species which attains the weight of more than ten 
pounds, being by far the largest member of its family in those waters. It 
is found from San Diego on the south, to Victoria on the north, but is 
more abundant about Monterey and San Francisco, than either northward 
or southward. It inhabits moderate depths, and is taken in considerate 
numbers with gill-nets and hooks. It feeds upon Crustacea and small fish. 
Its value is very slight, its flesh being tough and flavorless, and it is rarely 
sent to market when good fish are abundant. 
The genus Prionotus , of which we have five species, resembles Dac¬ 
tylopterus in general form, but the wings are much smaller, while two or 
three of the lower rays of these fins are developed into finger-like 
appendages which are used in stirring up the weeds and sand to rout out 
