INLAND FISHERIES. 49 



therefore, the l^reeding- seiisoii wus nearly tlie same as that at the 

 Kickemiiit river in 1898. 



At any time in the year a few startishes may be found which 

 contain ripe eggs and spermatozoa, but it is not known that these 

 eggs are laid out of season. If they are, the chance of their be- 

 coming fertiHzed is smalh Dr. Goto writes me that a similar phe- 

 nomenon is seen in a Japanese species of sea-urchin. He is able 

 to obtain ripe eggs and sperm, and to fertilize the eggs artificially, 

 even in the midst of winter, though the species probably does not 

 breed in these waters at that season. 



Sunmiary. To answer briefly the question asked at the begin- 

 ning of this chapter, we may say : The starfish in the upper por- 

 tion of the Bay, and probably throughout the Bay, have a short 

 spawning season, which begins about the second week in June 

 and continues for two or three weeks. The young fry begin to 

 set during the last week in June, and continue to set until the 

 middle of July. The fact that ripe starfishes may be obtained in 

 very small numbers throughout the year is of no practical signifi- 

 cance, for if such specimens lay their eggs out of season, the 

 chances are comparatively slight of their being fertilized. 



Observations were made at Woods HoU, from March to the end 

 of the summer. It is rather difficult to interpret the results sat- 

 isfactorily, for at no one period were more than a small propor- 

 tion of the stars at Woods Holl ripe, or even approaching a ripe 

 condition, and, on the other hand, a few ripe specimens could be 

 found at any time. As a rule the sexual glands were very small, 

 like those of the Narragansett Bay stars in mid- winter, and it was 

 noticeable also that in such specimens the digestive glands were 

 also unusually small. The latter condition I take to be an indica- 

 tion of poor nourishment, judging from the condition of poorly- 

 fed stars kept in confinement, as compared with well-nourished 

 specimens. I am inclined, therefore, to assigii the failure to breed 

 to the same cause. 



In this connection I may observe that in the specimens kept 

 over winter at Kickemuit, with very little to eat, the sexual glands 



