28 COPEIA 



four inches, and anal spines of a sunfish, about three 

 inches long. There were also pieces of the shell of a 

 crawfish. The absence of suckers ( catostomids ) was 

 unexpected. Their pharyngeals would have been as 

 easily picked out as those of the cyprinids, and sup- 

 posing that their bottom habits protected them, then 

 how about the crawfish? 



Of the 113 minnow pharyngeals, 90 were identi- 

 fied as from the golden shiner (Abramis crysoleucas) , 

 21, not satisfactorily determinable, were perhaps also 

 this species, and two were from different individuals 

 of the goldfish (Carassius auratus). That particular 

 nest of kingfishers was then concerned with cyprinids, 

 of which at a minimum estimate it accounted for 76 

 individuals, and of these the golden shiner made the 

 greater part, probably almost the entire number. 



The golden shiner is probably the most abundant 

 fish in still and slow-moving fresh- waters near New 

 York City, yet it would .scarcely figure as largely i:i 

 the kingfisher's bill of fare were there no discrimina- 

 tion in its favor. There is no obvious reason why the 

 goldfish, which is also abundant, should not be as read- 

 ily obtained. The writer suspects that the kingfisher 

 selects that fish which in a given region furnishes it 

 the best food supply, and specializes in the capture of 

 the same disregarding other species. It would be in- 

 teresting to learn if the many kingfishers which hunt 

 over the salt and brackish waters near New York spe- 

 cialize on Menidia or Fundulus. 



J. T. Nichols, 

 New York, N. Y. 



THE TRANSFORMATION OF SPELERPES 

 RUBER (DAUDIN). 



Various allusions in literature to the life history 

 of Spelerpes ruber as being well known, (though I 

 have been unable to find any published account of 



