THE BREEDING HABITS AND THE SEGMENTATION OF 

 THE EGG OF THE PIPEFISH, SIPHOSTOMA FLORIDA. 



By P^UGENE A¥lLLIS GUDGER, 



Of the Johns IIoj)kins University. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Through the kindness of Prof. W. K. Brooks, it was made possible 

 for me to go to Beaufort, North Carolina, in the summer of 1902, and 

 while there I began, at his suggestion, to collect material for the 

 development of the head skeleton of the pipefish. I soon found 

 young embryos and segmenting eggs, and, wishing to take up the 

 embryology of this fish, I deferred the former work till a later date. 



The collecting of further material and the observations on the 

 breeding ha])its were made at Beaufort during the summers of 1903 

 and 1904, when, with running sea w^ater at hand, the difliculties 

 necessarily attendant on this work were materiall}" reduced. 



This preliminary work was done in the lal)oratory of the United 

 States Burean of Fisheries at Beaufort, North Carolina. I am indebted 

 to the Commissioner, Hon. George M. Bowers, for the opportunity 

 to make use of the most excellent facilities at hand there. To the 

 director, Di'. Caswell Grave, I am under obligations for many helpful 

 suggestions. 



The further work was done in the biological lal)orator3' of the 

 Johns Hopkins Universitv. To Prof. W. K. Brooks, lam very grate- 

 ful for the interest taken in my work and for advice and direction. 

 I also wish to thank Dr. E. A. Andrews and Dr. Caswell Grave for 

 advice in overcoming the technical difficulties of my work. 



MATERIAL AND METHODS. 



Male pipefishes with full pouches were brought into the laboratory, 

 and there the upper end of the pouch was opened with forceps and a 

 few eggs removed and put under the microscope. If these were in a 

 stage wanted, the head of the fish was cut off, the flaps of the pouch 

 slit open with scissors and removed (frequently bringing eggs with 

 them), and the eggs removed by tearing with needles the tissue binding 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXIX— No. 1431. 



447 



