FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 173 



it is a year-round resident. Probably this is equally true in the Gulf, where it 

 probably gathers in the bottoms of the deeper creeks in winter. So far as known it 

 resembles the three-spined stickleback in its feeding habits (copepods and other 

 small crustaceans being its chief diet) and in its general mode of life. 



Breeding habits. — 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 delayed until somewhat later in the cooler waters 

 of the Gulf. The males build a nest of plant fragments, cemented with mucus — 

 a small rudimentary affair, however, compared with that of the three-spined stickle- 

 back — described by Ryder 7 as less than 1 inch in diameter, conical, with an open- 

 ing at the top. In the manufacture it binds together, by a compound mucous thread 

 which it spins out of a pore near the vent, a few stalks of any water plant, bringing 

 bits of weed or other objects in its mouth from time to time to add to the structure. 

 Finally it picks up the eggs and deposits them in the hollow at the top of the nest. 

 Presumably the male guards nest and eggs during incubation. The latter, which 

 are yellow and approximately 1.6 mm. in diameter, sink like those of the other 

 sticklebacks and stick together in clumps. At laboratory temperature (about 70°) 

 incubation occupies six days or thereabouts. Newly hatched larvse are about 4.5 

 mm. long and similar in appearance to those of the three-spined species but more 

 densely pigmented. 8 



THE TRUMPETFISHES. FAMILY FISTULARIID^E 



The trumpetfishes are characterized by their slender bodies and tremendously 

 long heads and by the fact that the anterior bones of the skull are prolonged in a 

 very long tube with the small mouth at its tip. The only other Gulf of Maine 

 species with which they could possibly be confused is the pipefish (p. 175). In the 

 latter, however, the tubular snout occupies only about one-eighteenth of the 

 length whereas in trumpetfishes it is nearly one-fourth. 9 Furthermore, the pipefish 

 lacks and the trumpetfish has ventral fins, and the caudal fin of the latter is 

 forked while that of the pipefish is rounded. 



67. Trumpetfish (Fistularia tabacaria Linnaeus) 



CORNETFISH 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 757. 



Description. — The slender body and very long snout of this fish are mentioned 

 above. The body to base of caudal is about 34 times as long as deep and 

 only about two-thirds as deep as thick. The head occupies almost one-third and 

 the snout about one-fourth of the body length. The bones forming the latter are 

 so loosely united that the snout is very distensible. The mouth is small, situated 



I Bulletin, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. I, 1882, p. 24. 



< The early development is described by Ryder (Bulletin, U. S. Fish Commission, Vol. I, 1882, p. 24) and by Kuntz and 

 Radclifle (1918, p. 132). 



'A specimen of the snipeflsh (Macrmhamphosus scolopax Linnaeus), a European species with its chief center of abundance in 

 the Mediterranean, was recorded at Provincetown in 1857; otherwise it is not known from the American coast. Should it again 

 stray across the Atlantic it may be recognized by a long tubular snout like that of the trumpetfish but a short high body with 

 two dorsal fins, the first consisting of one very stout and serrated spine and four smaller ones. 



