407 



Immediately after the close of the spawning season, or about May 

 25 to June I, great numbers of adult short-nosed gars are to be 

 seen in the river, swimming very near the surface and breaking water 

 at short intervals to seize emerging gnats and Mayflies. This kind 

 of activity is visible on sunny days at almost any time through June 

 and most of July; but during the live or six weeks preceding its 

 start, the river is nearly clear of gars, in consequence of their con- 

 gregation for spawning purposes in the lakes and marshes. More 

 than once between June i and July 15, both in 1910 and 191 1, Allen 

 and I had in sight at once as we went up the river in the launch as 

 many as fifty large gar — at least twenty-five on each side of the 

 boat. If we could have looked ahead also, we should doubtless have 

 seen another twenty-five, making seventy-five in a radius of 60 feet. 

 It has occurred to me that advantage might be taken of this habit 

 of gars to destroy them. It is at least probable that very large num- 

 bers of them could be caught, without danger to other fishes worth 

 mentioning, by hanging fine-meshed gill-nets so floated as to fish only 

 the upper 18 inches to 2 feet of the river. Certainly if our com- 

 mercial fisheries are to be properly conserved, stringent measures will 

 have to be taken against these "weeds" and "wolves" among fishes, 



Dogfish (Amia calva) 



Dogfish nests with eggs nearly ready to hatch — the embryo turn- 

 ing inside the tgg — were found April 20, 191 1, in Weed Prairie, an 

 overflowed flat south of Thompson's Lake, between Deep and 

 Lynch sloughs. The nests were in water 23^2 to 3 feet deep, choked 

 with smartweed, "flag" (Scirpiis), and Cladophora. They were 

 about two and a half feet in diameter, and nearly round, and were 

 excavated to a depth of about four inches, exposing grass roots, to 

 which many of the eggs adhered. The nests contain from 2000 to 

 5000 eggs each. The male fish, about 20 inches long, could be seen 

 hovering over each nest. One male allowed us to lower the water- 

 glass to within six inches of his back. Eggs which were probably 

 spawned about April 5 or 6 hatched in the nests between April 21 

 and 23, when the water temperature stood at about 60° Fahr. It 

 was possible to determine only roughly the percentage of fungused 

 eggs in the nests. They were probably less than fifty per cent. 



Eggs brought to the laboratory hatched at the same time as those 

 in the field and had the yolk sac absorbed by April 27. By April 

 29, the fry were swimming near the surface of the water in the 

 aquarium, and when fed mixed small plankton, could be seen jump- 

 ing, and opening and closing their mouths to catch the minute morsels. 



