406 



three feet deep, at the head of Flag Lake. These were brought to 

 the laboratory, and hatched in from six to eight days. They were 

 found in a locality frequented by spawning carp and black bass. 

 Hundreds of short-nosed gar were seen spawning May lO, 191 1, in 

 shallow water, one to three feet deep, along the east shore of Meredo- 

 sia Bay, half a mile above the Fish Hatchery, on ground on which 

 carp had deposited great numbers of eggs only three or four days 

 before. They were "running" in pairs, each female with a smaller 

 male attending her, with nose held close under her belly, one or both 

 occasionally flirting the tail or the whole body out of the water. Fe- 

 males full of nearly ripe eggs were taken in Quiver Marshes, Havana, 

 in 1910, as late as June 30; but the great majority of the females 

 taken in trammel-net drives at that date had spawned. 



Fry hatched in the laboratory had the yolk sac absorbed at the 

 end of seven days. At the age of ten days they were still observed 

 to lie inert on their sides on the bottom of the aquarium, or to hang 

 to the sides of it with their oral suckers. When between ten and 

 sixteen days old they could not be seen to make any movement for 

 securing food ; but a sixteen-day specimen, }^ inch long, was found 

 on dissection to have eaten seventeen large specimens of a small 

 crustacean, Scapholchcris imicronata, and nothing else. These Bn- 

 tomostraca were apparently selected separately from among a mixed 

 plankton, and must have been taken by instantaneous movements, 

 when no one was near to see what was happening. 



Fry and fmgerlings from -/s to 3^ inches long were taken in 

 1910 and 191 1 at the following places and dates: May 10, 191 1, ^ 

 inch long, abundant in water 2 to 3 feet deep, among willows, full 

 of weeds, at head of Meredosia Bay; May 25, 191 1, ^M inch to 

 2I/2 inches long, in shallow water, along shores of Dierker Lake; May 

 26, 191 1, 2}i inches long, Big Cove, Thompson's Lake; June 22, 

 1910, i^ inches long. Persimmon Point, near mouth of Quiver 

 Creek; and July 7, 1910, 33^ inches long, head of Liverpool Lake. 



The noticeable rarity of gar fingerlings and fry in collections is 

 probably to be explained in part by their extreme slenderness, which 

 permits them to escape through the meshes of ordinary minnow 

 seines, but is perhaps due in greater measure to their solitary habit. 

 All that we took in 19 10 and 191 1 were caught singly; and without 

 exception, all. young gars seen during these two seasons were float- 

 ing at or very near the surface of the water, in the sun, sometimes 

 with the back exposed. If disturbed, they dart downward in a flash; 

 but usually return to the same place a few seconds or minutes later 

 to take up their station. A second or third trial with a dip-net is 

 often successful if the first is not. 



