FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 19 



surface of the body of lampreys from Massachusetts Bay is perhaps most often 

 olive brown mottled with darker brown or black (the dark patches almost confluent), 

 a plain bluish variety has been described, as have lampreys with the ground color 

 yellowish brown, greenish, reddish, and bluish. Occasionally they are plain colored, 

 but usually variously mottled. Perhaps the color of the bottom on which they live 

 determines the color of lampreys as it does of so many other fishes. The lower sur- 

 face is whitish, gray, or a pale shade of the same hue as the ground color of the 

 back. During the breeding season lampreys (at least the landlocked form) are 

 described as taking on more brilliant hues, the ground color between the dark spots 

 turning bright yellow. 



Size. — The lamprey rarely grows to a length of 3 feet and a weight of 5 pounds 

 or more. Usually, however, adults, as they run up our rivers, are 2 to 2J^ feet long. 



General range. — Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America, from Labrador 

 south to Florida in the western Atlantic. The lamprey spends most of its life in 

 salt or brackish water, but ascends fresh-water rivers to spawn. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — No doubt the sea lamprey occurs along the 

 whole coast line of the Gulf of Maine, for it is recorded in or at the mouths of 

 numerous rivers and streams in Nova Sootia, New Brunswick, Maine, and Massa- 

 chusetts, specifically in the St. John and Shubenacadie Rivers and from the St. 

 Andrews region in salt water in the Bay of Fundy ; from Eastport, Bucksport, Casco 

 Bay, and the Presumpscott and Penobscot Rivers in Maine; from the Merrimac 

 River; and from various stations in Massachusetts Bay, where it has been taken 

 from time to time attaohed to driftwood and to the bottoms of boats as well as 

 fastened to fishes. In olden times lampreys entered the Merrimac River in extraor- 

 dinary numbers, but hard fishing has depleted their ranks sadly. Like other 

 anadromous fishes, though they may seem plentiful enough when condensed in the 

 narrow bounds of river banks, the stock probably is in no wise comparable with that 

 of the commoner schooling fishes. Certainly they are not seen very often in the 

 open sea. Probably at one time there was a run of lampreys in all the larger streams 

 emptying into the Gulf of Maine, and they are still to be caught in the Merrimac, 

 Kennebec, Penobscot, St. John, and Shubenacadie, and no doubt in sundry other 

 rivers where we, personally, have no direct knowledge of them. 



Habits. — Large lampreys have long been known to run up New England rivers a 

 little earlier in spring than do shad, possibly commencing to work upstream as 

 early as the end of April. They appear regularly in the Merrimac in May, and are 

 most abundant there in June, after which few if any enter. They go far upstream, 

 even to the headwaters, where they spawn in June and July. A sea lamprey has 

 been found to contain 236,000 ova. 



For the most complete survey of the life history of the lamprey we must 

 turn to a landlocked race inhabiting certain lakes in the interior of New York 

 and in Ontario. Briefly, it is as follows: " Such of the lampreys as approach 



11 For an account of nest building and spawning, which are hardly germane to the present study since they do not take place 

 in salt water, the reader is referred to Gage (The lake and brook lampreys of New York, especially those of Cayuga and Seneca 

 Lakes. The Wilder Quarter-Century Book, 1893, pp. 421-493, Pis. I-VII. Ithaca), Hussakoff (Sea lampreys and their nests. 

 American Museum Journal, 1913, Vol. 13, p. 323), and to Coventry (Breeding habits of the landlocked sea lamprey, Petromyzon 

 marinus var. dorsatus Wilder. University of Toronto Studies, Biological Series, No. 20: Publications of the Ontario Fisheries 

 Research Laboratory, 1922, No. 9, p. 133. Toronto). 



