28 Papers from the DeparUnent of Marine Biology. 



a big catch of Felichthys was made. Thirty- two males carrying eggs 

 were measured, and probably as many more were reUeved of their 

 oral burdens. Some half dozen of these were dissected and without 

 exception all were found to be males. A large number of eggs was 

 obtained, estimated at between 200 and 300, the greatest number 

 taken from one fish being 26. These eggs were held loosely in the 

 mouth, which was enlarged by a distension downward of the hyoid 

 region and outward of the branchial arches, as shown in figures 2 and 

 3, plate I. Some of these eggs are shown in figiu^e 8, plate iii. Figure 

 7, plate III, is a photograph of the mouth of one of these fish with the 

 eggs m situ. Attention is called to the extraordinarily distended 

 mouth and to the great size of the eggs. One of these has two embryos. 



Other trips were made during the summer of 1907, and scores of 

 fish and hundreds of eggs were taken. Many observations and 

 measurements of the adults were made; and much study was given 

 to the eggs and larvse, which were kept alive with considerable diffi- 

 culty in aquaria in the laboratory. The result of all this work was the 

 definite establishment of the fact that the male of the gaff-topsail 

 catfish takes the recently spawned and fertilized eggs into his mouth 

 and there nurses them until they are hatched and until the young 

 are able to care for themselves. 



During the summers of 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1912, the search 

 for gaff-topsails was assiduously continued and no effort was spared 

 to capture breeding males in the hope that early stages in the devel- 

 opment of the eggs might be obtained. These efforts were attended 

 by few successes and many failures. The failures in the seasons of 

 1908 and 1912 are mainly to be attributed to unprecedentedly heavy 

 rainfall in the Beaufort region towards the close of May. These 

 rains so freshened the water at the head of Newport estuary as to drive 

 the catfish into the lower and broad stretches of the river, where it 

 was found impossible to take them (despite almost daily seinings) at 

 locahties previously favored by the fish. 



However, all the failures do not have so simple an explanation, 

 for the fishermen, taking all possible precautions, made haul after 

 haul in ''holes" where recently or in previous seasons we had made 

 fine catches, but the net came in with no catfish or at best with a few 

 females or non-breeding males. In 1911, 1 even went so far as to make 

 two trips to Beaufort; the first covering the time from May 13 to 18, 

 the second for the season beginning May 25. The first time I was too 

 early, the breeding not ha\dng commenced ; the second time too late, 

 the eggs ha^^ing been laid during the interim. 



These various failures were all the more regrettable because in the 

 summers of 1908 and 1910, thanks to a grant from the Carnegie Insti- 

 tution of Washington, an artist was at hand to make drawings^ for 



^The drawings reproduced in this paper in figures 1, 2 and 3, plate i; and 9, 10, 11, 12 in 

 plate IV, were made by Mr. E. A. Morrison under this grant. 



