FIELD BOOK OF PONDS AND STREAMS 



they have been seen foraging on the sand along stream sides. 



Eels eat almost any animals dead or alive — insects, fishes, 

 frogs, water-rats — as well as aquatic plants. 



The life history of eels was not completely known until 

 1925 when Schmidt published his studies of both American 

 and European species. The breeding place of American eels 

 appears to be north of the West Indies, west and south of 

 regions where European eels breed. Eels spawn in these 

 deep waters and the eggs hatch into transparent floating 

 larvae. American eels keep their larval form for about a year 

 during which they drift near the surface. Then they are 

 caught in the current of the Gulf Stream and carried toward 

 the American coasts. Only when they near the coastal 

 waters, at a depth of 3000 feet or less, do they begin to take 

 on the shape of adult eels. Finally small eels but 2 or 3 

 inches long begin to come up the rivers in great numbers. 

 In Rhode Island young eels go up the Taunton River through 

 April and May; in some other rivers they appear later; in 

 many of them, thousands can be seen on the mud flats at river 

 mouths when the tide is out. Like lampreys they rest by 

 day and travel by night, with unbroken persistence working 

 their way up toward the regions forsaken by their parents. 

 Only the females persevere to the head waters; the males 

 stay in the lower parts of the stream. They live in these 

 places for 6 or 8 years and then another change comes 

 over them. They cease eating, their skins turn white and 

 shimmering and they begin their long journey to the sea. 

 These are the "silver eels" which are caught in traps, as they 

 journey downstream, resting by day and moving by night as 

 they did when they traveled upstream 6 or 8 years before. 



Size. — Fullgrown, 3 to 4 feet long. 



Suckers — Catostomidce 



Common sucker, mullet, Catostomus commersonii. — Com- 

 mon or white suckers are easily recognized by the rounded 



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