REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 91 



65. Cypsilurus gibbifrons (Cuvier and Valenciennes). 



Two specimens only are known; one, the type specimen nine inches long 

 obtained by Dussumier in the Atlantic Ocean and presented by him to 

 the Museum d 'Histoire Naturelle at Paris ; the other, a young specimen 

 eight inches long, taken by Mr. Samuel Powell at Newport, R. I., and 

 described by Jordan in 1886. (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1886, 528.) 



GASTEROSTEID^. The Sticklebacks. 



66. Pygosteus pungitius (Linnaeus). Nine-spined Stickleback. 



Geog. Dist.: Northern parts of Europe, and Atlantic coast of North 

 America from Long Island to the Arctic Sea, also in tributaries of the 

 Great Lakes and northward to the Saskatthwan and Alaska; fresh and 

 brackish waters. (Jordan and Evermann, p. 745.) Common in Maine 

 and Massachusetts and Long Island; reported from Connecticut from 

 Housatonic (Linsley, 1844) and Hockanum River (Ayres, 1844). 



Habitat: Fresh- water streams, and land-locked ponds and lagoons (Bean). 



Season in R. I.: Specimens from Warwick, R. I., in Roger Williams Park 

 Museum (identified by Mr. T. E. B. Pope). 



Reproduction: Spawns from May to July (Europe). Eggs are orange 

 colored J^ inch (1 mm.) in diameter, and laid in nests. Hatch in 12 

 days. (For description of eggs and young, see Ehrenbaum, Nordisches 

 Plankton, 10, 1909, 319.) 



Food: Said to be extremely destructive of the eggs of other fishes. 



Size: Three inches. 



67. Gasterosteus bispinosus (Walbaum). Two-spined Stickleback. 

 Geog. Dist.: From Labrador to New Jersey. 



Habitat: Brackish and salt water; tidal creeks. 



Season in R. I.: Very common at all seasons. 



Reproduction: From May to August it spawns in nests guarded by the 

 male. July 7, 1906, specimens two inches long, full of eggs, seined head 

 of Mill Cove. Sexually mature individuals found at Falmouth in 

 May, 1898 (Bumpus, 1898). (The young of the closely related species 

 G. aculeatus has been described by A. Agassiz, Proc. Amer. Acad. XVII, 

 1882, 228, and by Ehrenbaum, Nordisches Plankton, 10, 1909, 318.) 



Food: Small invertebrates; fish eggs and fry. 



Size: Four inches. 



68. Apeltes quadracu.S (Mitchill). Four-spined Stickleback. 

 Geog. Dist.: From Maine to New Jersey. Common. 



