92 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



Habitat: Fresh, brackish and salt water along the shores. Very common 

 in salt marshes and at the mouths of rivers. 



Season in R. I.: Common at all seasons. Can be taken in the seine at all 

 times of the year along muddy and weedy shores. 



Reproduction: Similar to the two preceding species. Sexually mature 

 individuals taken at Falmouth May 1898, (Bumpus, 1898). Spawns 

 in April, May, and June. Eggs are j^, i^^ch in diameter. They are 

 laid in nests and adhere together in masses of 15 to 20, the number laid 

 at one time. The nest is built by the male. (Ryder, Bull. U. S. Fish 

 Com. I, 1881, 24; Ryder, Report U. S. Fish Com. XIII, 1885, 511.) 



Food: Copepods. 



Size: Two inches. 



FISTULARIID^. The Cornet-Fishes. 



69. Fistularia tabacaria (Linnaeus). Trumpet-fish. 



Geog. Dist.: West Indies north to Woods Hole. Common from New 

 Jersey southward. Not common on Long Island (Bean). At Woods 

 Hole a few observed every year (Smith). In Massachusetts recorded 

 from Holmes Hole (Storer, 1839), Rockport (Goode and Bean, 1879), 

 Woods Hole (Goode 1879), Buzzards Bay (Smith, 1898). 



Season in R. I.: Rare. Reported in Narragansett Bay by R. I. Fish 

 Commission, 1899. 



Size: Maximum length, six feet. The usual size at Woods Hole is seven 

 or eight inches; the smallest, four inches; the largest, sixteen inches. 



SYNGNATHID^. The Pipe-Fishes. 



70. Siphostoma fuscum (Storer). Pipe-fish. 



Geog. Dist.: The Atlantic coast of the United States, Cape Ann to Vir- 

 ginia. Common along the whole New England coast. 



Habitat: Brackish and salt water among eel- grass and sea- weed. Speci- 

 mens taken in 1895, with menhaden, at all distances from the shore out 

 to 3 and 5 miles. (Smith, Bull., U. S. Fish Commission, XV, 1895, 294.) 



Season in R. I.: Common throughout the summer in the eel-grass along the 

 shores and in salt ponds. Two specimens were taken in offshore waters 

 in purse seines, with menhaden, in July, 1904. August 13, 1906, many 

 specimens dredged in upper Mill Cove. 



Reproduction: The breeding season extends from March to August. 

 The reproductive habits of the pipe-fish have been described by Gudger 

 (1906). There is a copulation in which eggs are transferred by the female 

 into a brood pouch of the male, where they are retained until the young 



