The genus _Zesticelus_ contains small soft-bodied sculpins from the depths of the North Pacific. _Zesticelus profundorum_ was taken in 664 fathoms off Bogoslof Island and _Zesticelus bathybius_ off Japan. In this genus the body is very soft and the skeleton feeble, the result of deep-sea life. Another deep-water genus less degraded is _Cottunculus_, from which by gradual loss of fins the still more degraded _Psychrolutes_ (_paradoxus_) and _Gilbertidia_ (_sigolutes_) are perhaps descended. In sculpins of this type the liparids, or sea-snails, may have had their origin. Among the remaining genera _Gymnocanthus_ (_tricuspis_, etc.) has no vomerine teeth. _Leptocottus_ (_armatus_) and _Clinocottus_ (_analis_) abound on the coast of California, and _Pseudoblennius_ (_percoides_) is found everywhere along the shores of Japan. _Vellitor centropomus_ of Japan is remarkable among sculpins for its compressed body and long snout. _Dialarchus snyderi_ of the California rock-pools is perhaps the smallest species of sculpin, _Blepsias_ (_cirrhosus_), _Nautichthys_ (_oculofasciatus_), and _Hemitripterus_ (_americanus_), the sea-raven, among the most fantastic. In the last-named genus the spinous dorsal is many-rayed, as in _Scorpænidæ_, a fact which has led to its separation by Dr. Gill as a distinct family. But the dorsal spines are equally numerous in _Jordania_, which stands at the opposite extreme of the cottoid series. [Illustration: FIG. 395.—_Blepsias cirrhosus_ Pallas. Straits of Fuca. ] [Illustration: FIG. 396.—Sea raven, _Hemitripterus americanus_ (Gmelin). Halifax, Nova Scotia. ] [Illustration: FIG. 397.—_Oligocottus maculosus_ Girard. Sitka. ] In _Ascelichthys_ (_rhodorus_), a pretty sculpin of the rock-pools of the Oregon region, the ventral fins are wholly lost. _Ereunias grallator_, a deep-water sculpin from Japan, without ventrals and with free rays below its pectorals, should perhaps represent a distinct family, _Ereuniidæ_. The degeneration of the spinous dorsal in _Psychrolutes_ and _Gilbertidia_ of the North Pacific has been already noticed. These genera seem to lead directly from _Cottunculus_ to _Liparis_. Fossil _Cottidæ_ are few. _Eocottus veronensis_, from the Eocene of Monte Bolca, is completely scaled, with the ventral rays I, 5. It is apparently related to _Jordania_, but is still more primitive. _Lepidocottus_ (_aries_ and numerous other species, mostly from the Miocene) is covered with scales, but apparently has less than five soft rays in the ventrals. Remains of _Oncocottus_, _Icelus_, and _Cottus_ are found in Arctic Pleistocene rocks. The family as a whole is evidently of recent date. The _Rhamphocottidæ_ consist of a single little sculpin with a large bony and singularly formed head, found on the Pacific Coast from Sitka to Monterey. The species is called _Rhamphocottus richardsoni_.