16 



coiTect if tlie eggs ineasure thirteen to the linear inch, as 

 mine did. 



In the last report of the New York Fishery Commission 

 I gave an estimate of the number of eggs in a common sun- 

 fish, but did not add for the filling of interstices. After- 

 wards I gave the facts to a newspaper man at more length, 

 and he printed the following : 



" Last summer Mr. Fred Mather, Superintendent of the 

 New York Fishery Commission, computed the eggs in one 

 of our common pond sun-fishes. The extreme length of the 

 fish, including the caudal fin, was 6^ inches, audits weight 

 was 5^ ounces. The fish was captured on June 16, and was 

 nearly ready to spawn ; the weight of the ovaries was 1^ 

 ounces. The eggs measured twenty-eight to the inch, 

 making 21,962 to the cubic inch. The displacement of the 

 ovaries in water was a trifle over two cubic inches, and the 

 number was estimated, in round numbers, to be 44,000 — a 

 most enormous number for so small a fish. This fish makes 

 a nest in the sand or gravel near the edge of ponds or on 

 shallow si^ots, and, according to Mr. Mather, it is the male 

 fish which guards off intruders after the eggs are laid — a 

 fact not known to ichthyologists, who study fishes after 

 they have been kept in alcohol." 



Adding 350 eggs to each thousand, for closest packing, 

 and the total in this small fish would reach 58,000, a figure 

 that I believe to be a more correct one. 



Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y., April 30, 1890. 



THE DETROIT WHITE-FISH STATION. 



Bv J. H. BissELL, OF Michigan. 



Among the notable fish-cultural establishments of the 

 United States, there is one of which very little has been 

 said in the public press outside of the State. It is the 

 White-fish Hatching-house of the Michigan Fish Com- 

 mission, located at Detroit. 



