312 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



spined stickleback it often runs up into fresh- 

 water, though it is primarily a salt and brackish 

 water fish. And it is never found far in from the 

 coast or out at sea. 



In the Woods Hole region this stickleback spawns 

 as early as May and as late as the last week of 

 July, after which spent females are found; but 

 the onset of spawning may be somewhat later in 

 the cooler waters of the Gulf. The male builds 

 a nest of plant fragments which it brings in its 

 mouth, cemented with mucous threads that he 

 spins out of a pore near his vent; a small rudi- 

 mentary affair, however, compared with that of 

 the three-spined stickleback, described by Ryder 72 

 as less than 1 inch in diameter, conical, with an 

 opening at the top. Finally, the male stickleback 

 picks up the eggs that have been laid by the female 

 and deposits them in the hollow at the top of the 

 nest, guarding them, presumably, during incuba- 

 tion. The eggs are yellow, approximately 1.66 

 mm. in diameter; they sink like those of the other 

 sticklebacks and stick together in clumps. Incu- 

 bation occupies six days or thereabouts at labora- 

 tory temperature (about 70°). Newly hatched 

 larvae are about 4.5 mm. long and similar in 

 appearance to those of the three-spined species 

 but more densely pigmented. 73 



General range.- — This is an American fish, known 

 along the coast from the southern side of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence and Nova Scotia to Virginia; 

 at home both in salt water and in brackish, and 

 running up into fresh water. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine.- — This stickle- 

 back is common all around the shores of the Gulf 

 on the Nova Scotian side as well as the New Eng- 

 land side. We have taken it at Yarmouth; 

 Huntsman 7i records it from St. Mary Bay and 

 along the New Brunswick shore well within the 

 Bay of Fundy (Maine has usually been given as 

 its northern limit), and there are many locality 

 records for the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts. 

 But it is so much more closely restricted to estuar- 

 ine situations than is its three-spined relative 

 (p. 310) that we have never taken it in our tow nets 

 nor do we find a single record of it in the open 

 sea. On the south shore of New England it is a 

 year-round resident. Probably this is equally 

 true in the Gulf, where it may be expected to 

 gather in the bottoms of the deeper creeks in 

 winter, as it is known to do in Chesapeake Bay. 

 It resembles the three-spined stickleback in its 

 feeding habits so far as known (copepods and other 

 small crustaceans being its chief diet) and in its 

 general mode of life. 



THE PIPEFISHES. FAMILY SYNGNATHIDAE 



The forward portion of the head has the form 

 of a long tubular snout in the pipefishes, with the 

 small mouth situated at its tip; the skin is armed 

 with rings of bony plates; there is only one dorsal 

 fin (soft-rayed) , the body is very slender, and there 

 are no ventrals. The snout recalls that of the 

 trumpetfishes (p. 316), but pipefishes differ from 

 them and from most other bony fishes in the struc- 

 ture of their gills, which form tufts of small rounded 

 lobes, instead of the familiar filaments. Their 

 general affinity in this respect is with the group of 

 which the sticklebacks are the most familiar ex- 

 ponents. There are many species of pipefishes in 

 warm seas, but only one inhabits the Gulf of 

 Maine regularly, while a second has been re- 

 corded there — a stray from the south. 



'» Bull. U. S. Fish. Comm., vol. I, 1882, p. 24. 



" The early development is described by Ryder (Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., 

 vol. 1, 1882, p. 24) and by Kuntz and Radclifle (Bull. TJ. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 

 35, 1918, p. 132). 



" Conlrib. Canadian Biol. (1921) 1922, p. 61. 



KEY TO GULF OF MAINE PIPEFISHES 



1. Dorsal fin with 35 to 41 rays; 18 to 20 bony plates in 

 front of the vent and 36 to 42 behind it 



Common pipefish, p. 312 

 Dorsal fin with 29 to 31 rays; 16 or 17 bony plates in 

 front of the vent and 31 to 35 behind it 



Pelagic pipefish, p. 314 



Common pipefish Syngnathus fuscus Storer 75 

 1839 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 770 as Siphostoma 

 fuscum (Storer). 



Description. — This is a very slender little fish, 

 particularly so behind the vent, males being about 

 35 times as long as they are deep and females about 

 30 times. The head occupies one-eighth to one- 



'* This is the only pipefish that occurs regularly on our northern coasts. 

 Jordan, Evermann, and Clark (Rept. U. S. Comm. Fish. [1928], 1930, Pt. 2, 

 p. 242) refer it to the genus St/rides Jordan and Evermann, 1927. For a syn- 

 opsis of the various other species of the genus see Jordan and Evermann, 

 Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus., Pt. 1, 1896. p. 961. 



