168 Gudger— -Notes on Some Beaufort, N. C, Fishes. 

 Tylosurus marinus (Walbaum). 



i, KEEN GAR. 



Tylosurus acus (Lacepede). 



GAR-FISH. 



On July 2, 1910, there was captured near the inner beacon in Beaufort 

 Harbor a, Tylosurus marinus 2\}4 inches long. Smith notes that the 

 maximum size is about 4 feet, the average \% to 2 feet. On July 6 at 

 the same place there was taken a Tylosurus acus 33 inches Ions;. This 

 was a female with an abdomen but K! 1 ., inches long, through which 

 stretched the alimentary canal, straight from mouth to anus. One horn 

 of the ovary was rudimentary, measuring hut % to % inch, the other 

 however was 9 inches long. The liver likewise had hut one lobe. The 

 air bladder was greatly dilated and was seemingly divided into com- 

 partments. 



It is interesting to find that Sir Hans Sloane, as early as 1725, in 

 describing the green gar-fish or needle-fish of Jamaica, Acus vulgaris, 

 noted that " Its Stomach was in no ways to be distinguished from the 

 Aesophagus or <iuts, all three being one straight equally large tube from 

 the Mouth to the Anus." 



Mugil cephalus Linnaeus. 

 JUMPING MULLET. 

 The mullet is one of the most abundant and valuable fishes found at 

 Beaufort. It is known to reach a length of 22 inches, but the 2 largest 

 collected by the writer in 1911 were 13 inches long. One of these justified 

 its name by jumping out of the bunt of the seine into the boat. Coles 

 reports similar occurrences and says that once he received so hard a blow 

 from one that he thought that his boatman had struck him with an oar. 



Scomberomorus maculatus (Mitchill). 



SPANISH MACKEREL. 

 Two fairly large Spanish mackerel were taken in the harbor in 11110, 

 one of 2 pounds, the other of '.\K, pounds weight and 25 inches long. 

 Specimens taken outside the harbor frequently run to '.) or 10 pounds, 

 while the maximum recorded for the Atlantic Coast, according to Dr. 

 Smith ( 1907), is 41 inches long and 2-") pounds weight. To illustrate the 

 abundance of this elegant fish on our coast, it may be added that on 

 October 17, lido, ('apt. J. H. Potter of Beaufort bought 3453 pounds of 

 mackerel, which at 15 cents per pound amounted to $518. This catch 

 was made at Cape Lookout by one crew of fishermen. 



Triehiurus lepturus Linnaeus. 



SCABBARD-FISH 



During the summer of 1910 the writer again took at different times 

 specimens of the scabbard-fish, Triehiurus lepturus, and at the same 

 hauling ground as heretofore, viz., near the beacon opposite the mouth of 

 Core Creek, about halfway between the laboratory and the Narrows of 

 Newport River. The female was 27)4 inches long and her ovary was filled 





