REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 87 



56. Fundulus diaphanus (LeSueur) . Spring Minnow; Killifish. 



Geog. Dist. : From Maine to Cape Hatteras. Common along the whole 



New England coast. 

 Habitat: Around shores fed directly by fresh- water streams. 

 Season in R. I.: Found throughout the year, but not so common as the 



other species of this family. 

 Size: Four inches. 



ESOCID^. The Needle-Fishes and Garfishes. 



57. Tylosurus marinus (Walbaum). Garfish; Billfish. 



Geog. Dist.: From Maine to Texas. Frequently recorded along the 

 whole New England coast. 



Habitat: Salt and brackish water around shores, sometimes entering 

 rivers. Goode found specimens 30 miles up the Connecticut River, 

 June, 1871. (Amer. Nat. V, 1871, 439.) 



Season in R. I.: Common from June to October. Specimens from New- 

 port mentioned by LeSueur, 1821. Specimen two feet long in Roger 

 Williams Park Museum taken July 26, 1897, at Rocky Point. August 

 28, 1905, several large ones were taken at the Cold Spring Beach, Wick- 

 ford. On August 13, 1909, two specimens were taken in a seine at 

 Cornelius Island, one had in its stomach three adult Fundulus hetero- 

 clitus; the other was a female, with the ovaries nearly sjjent, but con- 

 taining a few large but immature eggs. Specimens, both adult and 

 young, are occasionally seen swimming at the surface of inshore waters 

 on calm days. In Mill Cove adults are sometimes speared at night like 

 eels. July 25, 1908, with acetylene lamp, two specimens were taken 

 in Mill Cove, 160 mm. 



Reproduction: Probably spa^7is in the bays in May and June. Grows very 

 rapidly and probably is mature in the second year. Ryder, in July 

 and August, found specimens of this species in abundance in a spawning 

 condition at Cherrystone, Virginia, near the mouth of the Chesapeake 

 Bay. Egg is about one-seventh inch in diameter. The eggs have a 

 thick membrane covered with numerous filaments which fasten the 

 eggs together in clumps and attach them to submerged objects. (Ryder, 

 Bull. U. S. Fish Com., I, 1881, 283.) 



Food: Fishes, especially Menidia and Fundulus; Crustacea, shrimp, am- 

 phipods; annelids. 



Rate of Growth: July 9, 1909, a specimen swimming at surface, 

 in alleyway of lobster rearing plant, measured one inch (24 mm.); it 



