Vol. XXI, pp. 207-210 November 24, 1908 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



NOTES ON A PIPEFISH FPvOM THE MID-NORTH 



ATLANTIC. 



BY BARTON W. EVERMANN AND WILLIAM C. KENDALL. 



In October, 1901, the U. S. Fish Commission received two 

 specimens of pipefish from Lieut. -Commander -Limes H. Sears, 

 U. S. N., in charge of the Branch Hydrographic Office at New 

 York. They were handed him by Captain Henry Eagleton of 

 the S. S. Trojan Prince, with the information that they had 

 been saved from a mass of 20 or more that had fouled the patent 

 log during the night of October 16, in Lat. 44.5° North ; Long. 

 33° West, causing an error of about 25°. 



Captain Eagleton stated that the first officer was observed 

 clearing the log of a mass of what he supposed were "marine 

 worms" and the captain was in time to save two specimens. 

 When these specimens were received by the Bureau of Fisheries 

 they were rather badly broken ; one lacking a portion of the 

 head only was sufficiently intact to permit of positive identifi- 

 cation. The other specimen lacked the head and a portion of 

 the tail. Upon examination they proved to be the young of 

 Nerophis aequoreus (Linnaeus), a common European species. 

 Giinther* gives its geographic distribution as, " Northern and 

 western Europe; New Orleans." As this species has never 

 been noticed on the coasts of America, Giinther' s reference to 

 New Orleans is doubtless an error. 



Coucht says, " It is more an inhabitant of the open ocean, 

 where, in summer, fishermen report that they see it near the 

 surface over a depth of more than fifty fathoms, at a distance 

 from land of ten or fifteen leagues." 



* Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., VIII, 191, 1.S70. 

 + Fishes of the British Islands. 



33— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXI, 1908. (207) 



