CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



131 



ENEMIES OF THE GRUNION AT 

 LONG BEACH. 



The normal run of grunion occurred at 

 Long Beach on May 4, .5 and 6, and on 

 the fourteenth Mr. Thompson and 

 Mr. Higgius obtained large numbers of 

 pods of eggs for the purpose of photo- 

 graphing the hatching when the eggs were 

 in the proper stage. Greatly to their 

 surprise, every third pod at least was 

 badly infected with maggots, presumably 

 those of the same fiy whose maggots 

 were found the preceding year but of 

 which the species name was not deter- 

 mined. Even the pods set aside as clean 

 were subsequently found to be infected, 

 and it proved impossible to raise the eggs 

 to the hatching stage without great 

 injury. Not one in twenty-five of the 

 eggs would hatch when the proper time 

 came, although they were for the most 

 part alive. As the normal percentage 

 is near 100, this was a considerable 

 disappointment to the photographer. The 

 failure to hatch was undoubtedly due to 

 the maggots, in conjunction Avith a very 

 extensive infection by a small nematode 

 worm which accompanied the maggots. 

 The sand in which the eggs were was 

 foul and ill smelling. 



ALBACORE OFF SAN FRANCISCO IN 

 DECEMBER. 



Mr. H. B. Nidever. assistant in the 

 San Pedro office, furnishes the following 

 note regarding the albacore : 



F. G. Grotto, of San Pedro, who has 

 fished for albacore here for several 

 seasons, tells nic that while he was 

 making a trip on tlu' "Daisy Mathiews," 

 a lumber schooner from San Francisco 

 to Honolulu, he caught two albacore 

 trolling from the steamer about 280 



miles out from San Francisco. He said 

 that he saw two. schools of fish and 

 that those he caught weighed 18 to 20 

 pounds and that they had squid in their 

 stomachs. The gonads of the fish were 

 about one foot long and he could see 

 developing eggs about the size of a pin 

 head. They were caught on the eight- 

 eenth of December, 1919. 



The reader who is interested might 

 refer to a record of the taking of alba- 

 core off Northern California, on page 

 203 of the October number of California 

 Fish and Game for 1919. Such records 

 are interesting as showing extremes of 

 distribution. 



OIL ON PISMO BEACH. 



Pi'ofessor Weymouth, engaged in study- 

 ing Pismo clams for the Commission, 

 reports that on the twenty-first and 

 twenty-second of May, on the beach at 

 Oceano and Pismo, a great many dead 

 sea birds were observed covered with oil, 

 and that many more still alive were 

 lying on the beach with their feathers 

 gummed with heavy oil. Dogs running 

 on the beach chased and killed many of 

 these. Ducks of various species and loons 

 were observed among them. Professor 

 Weymouth stated that he did not observe 

 any clams dead from oil, probably be- 

 cause he was not on the beach at the 

 right time. 



The destruction caused among birds and 

 mollusks by floating crude oil has been 

 pointed out several times in these col- 

 umns, and it is evident that the damage 

 is still proceeding. An article by Pro- 

 fessor Weymouth in regard to the 

 destruction of mollusks appeared in Cali- 

 fornia Fish and Game, volume 5, No. 4, 

 page 174. 



CONSERVATION IN OTHER sSTATES. 



NEW YORK DISPLAYS COLORED 



MOTION PICTURES. 

 Motion pictures in natural colors, 

 showing the Adirondacks in summei* and 

 also at the height of their autumnal 

 brilliancy, will form one of the special 

 features of the New York Conservation 

 Commission in carrying on its educational 

 compaign. These natural colored motion 

 pictures, taken during the past season, 

 are the first of their knid ever taken in 



the Adirondacks, and were produced by 

 an entirely new process. 



HEAVY PENALTIES FOR HUNTERS 

 IN MICHIGAN. 

 Five hundred dollars, the maximum 

 fine, recently was levied by a judge in 

 Miqhigan against a hunter for selling 32 

 ducks in violation of the Migratory Bird 

 Treaty Act. Another violator of the 

 same law, in Connecticut, who has been 



