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while on December 18th, 1889, 400 pounds were caught with one haul of 
the seine, and on January 10, 1890, they were again abundant. Dur- 
ing the summer they do not go in schools. Those caught on December 
18, 1890, were said to have been burrowing with their blunt snouts for 
a small mollusk (Hmpidonax) on which they largely subsist. 
Scizena saturna (Girard), The Croaker. 
Girard, Pacific R. R. Survey x, 98, 1859; J. & G. ’80, 28; R. Smith ’80; J. & G. 
80a, 456; id., 781, 49; id., 782, 572; R. Smith, June, ’85. 
This is an important food fish. It is migratory. The males, which 
are then quite black, enter the bay as early as January (28 and 29, 1890), 
and by the middle of February and March it is common. The last one 
was observed September 24, 
Ripe males were seen March 27 and ripe females the two months fol- 
lowing. Eggs were skimmed from May 2. Evenings while skimming 
over the breeding grounds their frog-like croaking could be heard on 
all sides. 
The eggs of this species are remarkably like these of a flounder 
(Hypsopsetta) and it is only after a time that they can certainly be told 
apart. It is not unlikely that several species of pelagic eggs have been 
- confounded with this one, as eggs supposed to be these were taken 
_ from May to the middle of August. If this should be the case they 
probably belong to the other species of this family, the eggs of which 
have not yet been described. 
The eggs are transparent, 0.75 millimeter in diameter, and have from 
two to eight oil-globules, which, in late stages, are united into one. 
The eggs can best be distinguished from those of Hypsopsetta by the 
method of the formation of the chromatophores. These are formed 
along the entire embryonic ring in this species and appear quite early. 
The time required for hatching, if indeed all the eggs referred to 
this species belong to it, varies greatly with the temperature, the 
longest time being forty-eight hours, the shortest eighteen. In those 
hatching earlier the yolk is not as much reduced as in the others, and 
the tail is not quite as long. 
a 
The young of this species were figured in the American Naturalist 
for February, 1891. 
Genyonemus lineatus (Ayres). 
E. & E., ’89a. 
This species entered the bay in large numbers in December (27), 1890. 
During the latter part of January ripe females were obtained. None 
were seen after February 3. The eggs are pelagic 9.71 millimeters in 
diameter and have an oil globule 0.18 millimeters in diameter. It is 
caught with the seine and with hook and line. 
