FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



311 



the ventral spine. Dr. Kendall writes 69 that care- 

 ful examination of large series has convinced him 

 that this is actually a distinct species, not a race 

 of the extremely variable three-spined stickle- 

 back, although he saw one specimen apparently 

 intermediate between the two. 



Color.— Grass-green above in life, mottled and 

 finely speckled with black on the top of the head 

 and back; sides of head and body golden with 

 dark blotches; breast silvery; ventral fins scarlet. 



Habits. — Its mode of life is the same as that of 

 the three-spined species so far as known, and 

 sticklebacks of this type have been described as 

 building nests with bits of straw on sandy bottom 

 in New York waters, 70 but the two species or 

 races have been confused so often that nothing 

 more definite can be said of its habits. 



General range.- — Newfoundland to New York. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine.- — Sticklebacks 

 of this type are common in company with the 

 three-spined sticklebacks in Passamaquoddy and 

 St. Mary Bays 71 and in the Bay of Fundy. They 

 may be expected anywhere on the Maine coast, 

 being recorded at Winter Harbor; off Monhegan 

 Island; off Seguin Island; from Casco Bay and its 

 tributaries in both salt and brackish water; and 

 from Kittery. They have also been taken at 

 Swampscott, in Massachusetts Bay, and they are 

 fairly common in summer at Woods Hole. We 

 have taken them in our tow-nets, also, off Cape 

 Porpoise; on Platts Bank; in the Western Basin of 

 the Gulf of Maine; and on German Bank. 



« Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 18, 18%, p. 624. 



'• Bean, Bull. 60, New York State Mus., Zool. 9, 1903, p. 341. 



» Huntsman, Contrib. Canadian Biol. (1921) 1922. p. 61. 



Four-spined stickleback Apeltes quadracus 

 (Mitchill) 1815 



Bloody Stickleback 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 752. 



Description.- — The four-spined stickleback has 

 no bony plates in its scaleless skin, but it does have 

 a bony ridge on each side of the abdomen, making 

 it triangular in cross section, with flat belly and 

 sharp back; this gives it an aspect very different 

 from the other sticklebacks. It is fusiform in side 

 view, tapering to the rather pointed nose and to 

 the slim caudal peduncle. There are two to four 

 free dorsal spines standing close one behind the 

 other, inclining alternately to one side or the other, 

 and another spine is attached to the dorsal fin by 

 the fin membrane. The anal fin is similarly pre- 

 ceded by an attached spine, and each ventral fin 

 is represented by a stouter curved spine, strongly 

 saw-edged, followed by about two slender rays. 

 The dorsal fin stands over the anal as in the nine- 

 spined species, but both these fins are more 

 rounded in outline, wliile the caudal fin is rela- 

 tively longer and narrower than in any of our 

 other sticklebacks. 



Color. — Brownish olive or greenish brown above, 

 with dark mottlings that alternate below the lat- 

 eral line with the silvery white of the belly. The 

 fin membrane of the ventrals is red. Males are 

 much darker than females. 



Size. — One and one-half to two and one-half 

 inches long. 



habits.- — This is a common little fish in the 

 salt marshes, where it consorts with other stick- 

 lebacks and with mummichogs. Like tbe three- 



Figure 171. — Four-spined stickleback (Apeltes quadracus), Woods Hole. From Jordan and Evermann. Drawing by 



A. H. Baldwin. 



