REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 147 



the U S. Fish Commission at Watch Hill Reef, August, 1874. Small 

 specimens taken September, 1874, off Block Island, from the shell of a 

 large species of scallop, Pecien tenuico status. (Goode, Nat. Hist, of 

 Aquatic Animals, 234.) Common in winter on rocky bottoms 

 (Smith). 



Repkoduction : Found full of spawn in December and January (Smith). 

 Spawning season from November to February (Ehrenbaum). Eggs 

 1-11 inch (1.5 mm.) in diameter. The larvae on hatching are 1-5 inch 

 long (5.44 mm.). (For description of the eggs and young, and biblio- 

 graphy, see Ehrenbaum, Nordisches Plankton, 4, 1905, 113; ]\Ic- 

 Intosh and Masterman, British Marine Food Fishes, 1897, 190.) 



Food: Amphipods and shrimp have been found in the stomach (Bean 

 1903). 



Size: Five inches. 



TRIGLID.^. The Gurnards. 



164. Prionotus carolinus (Linnseus). Sea-robin; Common Gurnard. 

 Geog. Dist.: Casco Bay to South Carolina. Rare north to Cape Cod. 



In 1896, between July 4th and 14th, over twenty-five specimens were 

 taken in Casco Bay, Maine. At Woods Hole, in 1898, a thousand or 

 more fish representing this species and P. strigatus appeared in a trap 

 on May 13. .Specimens examined on the 16th were not ripe, though 

 the ovaries were large (Bumpus, 1898). 



Season in R. I.: Appears in April and is common until October. Two 

 specimens from Newport in the U. S. National Museum. In 1906 the 

 first specimens off Newport were taken April 13; April 30, three speci- 

 mens were taken in the Dutch Island Harbor trap. In 1907, the first 

 specimens from Newport were reported May 9; in 1908 they were 

 first taken April 25. 



Reproduction: Spawns in June. 



Food: Fishes; one specimen had four winter flounders in the stomach. 

 Also young clams, squids, molluscs, shrimp, annelids. 



Size: Fourteen inches. 



165. Prionotus strigatus (Cuvier and Valenciennes). Sea-robin; Sculpin. 

 Geog. Dist.: Atlantic coast, Cape Cod to Virginia. Common on south- 

 ern shore of New England. 



Season in R. I.: This species does not appear to be conmion in Narra- 

 gansett Bay. Occasionally taken in traps from June to October. 

 Two specimens from Newport in U. S. National Museum. September 



