462 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vou xxix. 



about the j^oiing in the pouch receiving nouri.shment from it. Thc}^ 

 have detinitely established the fact that the niarsupiuni of the nude of 

 the Lophobranchs, with its epithelial lining and its capillaries and 

 lymph vessels, is n. functional uterus-place nta. 



I have no fishes especially killed for sections through the pouch, and 

 the sections cut are so imperfect that no figures will be given, but on 

 the whole they confirm the results of Huot and Cohn." 



THE BREEDING HABITS OF SIPHOSTOMA FLORIDiE. 



The following o})servations on the breeding habits of Sipliostoma 

 Jloridx w^ere made in the laborator}" of the United States Bureau of 

 Fisheries at Beaufort, North Carolina, Jul}^ 17, 1903. The transfers 

 were witnessed by three other workei's. When my account thereof 

 had been written it was submitted to them and their additions were 

 included in this full statement. 



A female fish ready to give up eggs may be recognized b^" her much 

 distended abdomen, due to the presence of ripe eggs in the ovary, but 

 much more by the oviduct protruding — as first noted by Lafont (1871)— 

 and filled with eggs, some of which may escape from time to time. In 

 the nonbreeding male the flaps of skin fornnng the pouch lie flat in 

 the ventral concavity formed by the outward and downward projecting 

 skin-covered horny plates of mail, but when sexually excited these 

 flaps rise, become thrown into folds and finally unite their edges into 

 the long middle seam, and form the closed pouch. 



The act of copulation is preceded by a very curious '"''liehesspiel.^^ 

 The two fishes swim around in the aquarium with their bodies in nearly 

 vertical positions, but with the head and shoulder region sharply bent 

 forward like the letter f. Then the\^ swim slowly past each other, 

 their bodies touching and the male being perhaps more demonstrative. 

 Just before the actual transfer, the male becomes violently excited and 

 demonstrative, shakes his head and anterior body-parts in a corkscrew 

 fashion and with his snout caresses the female on the Vjelly. The 

 female responds to this ])ut does not become so excited. This is 

 repeated several times, the fishes becoming more excited each time 

 they touch each other. Presently, quick as a flash, the sexual embrace 

 takes place and then the fishes separate to begin again in a few minutes. 



This embrace consists in the fishes intertwining their bodies like tw^o 

 capital letter S's, the one reversed on the other, thus bringing them 

 face to face. Thus they hold their bodies together while the eggs 

 pass from the oviduct into the pouch. Their bodies touch at three 

 places — in the anterior region, just back of the pectorals; in the pos- 



« Since this paper was sent to the printer, I have received from Dr. Theodore 

 Gill a copy of his paper on the Life History of the Sea-Horses (Tlippocampids). 

 Through Doctor Gill'^! kindness I was permitted to read his paper in manuscript 

 and to avail myself of the valuable information contained therein. 



