168 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [462] 



fishes. It is true that many of the larger fishes frequent the estuaries 

 to prey upon smaller ones, some of which are extremely abundant in 

 these waters. But the small fishes, like minnows, as well as the young 

 of the larger ones, feed chiefly upon the small Crustacea, worms, and 

 shells that live in the waters that they inhabit. Therefore the entire 

 value of the estuaries as feeding-grounds for the larger fishes depends 

 directly upon those species of Crustacea, &c., that naturally live in 

 brackish water. 



In discussing the fauna of the estuaries I have found it most conven- 

 ient to group the species under the following divisions : 1. Those of sandy 

 shores and bottoms. 2. Those of muddy shores and bottoms. 3. Those 

 inhabiting oyster-beds. 4. Those inhabiting the eel-grass. 5. Those 

 attached to rocks, piles of wharves, floating timber, buoys, &c. 



The lists could be greatly extended by including all the species to be 

 found near the mouths of estuaries, or in those harbors and ponds that 

 are scarcely brackish, for in these localities the fauna is nearly identi- 

 cal with that of the bays and sounds, and the lists already given on 

 previous pages will also apply very well to such places. 



As a general rule only those species that are abundant, or at least 

 frequent, in waters distinctly brackish, have been included in the lists. 



Ill, 1. ANIMALS INHABITING THE SANDY SHORES AND BOTTOMS OF 



BRACKISH WATERS. 



Sandy shores and bottoms are generally less common and less exten- 

 sive than muddy ones, and occur chiefly toward the mouths of estuaries, 

 or on the more exposed borders of the larger ponds and harbors, where 

 the wave-action is greatest. 



When such bottoms are covered with eel-grass, as often happens, the 

 animals are quite numerous, but when destitute of vegetation the spe- 

 cies of animals are but few, and mostly of the kinds that burrow. But 

 when there is a mixture of mud with the sand the variety is much 

 greater. 



Near high-water mark, colonies of the " sand-fiddler, 7 ' Gelasimus pu- 

 gilator, (p. 336,) often occur, as on the sandy beaches outside. In the 

 same situations the beach-fleas, Talorchestia longicornis and T. megal- 

 ophtlialma (p. 336,) also occur, burrowing in the sand ; while the Orches- 

 tia agilis SMITH is abundant under the vegetable debris at high-water 

 mark. 



Several species of salt-water insects also occur, burrowing in the 

 sandy beaches at and below high-water mark. Among these are sev- 

 eral beetles, which live in such situations, both in the larval and adult 

 conditions. The Bledius cordatus is one of the most abundant of these. 

 This is a small, dark-colored, " rover-beetle," with very short elytra. 

 It makes small, perpendicular holes in the sand near high-water mark, 

 throwing up a little mound of sand around the burrows. A larger spe- 

 cies, Bledius pallipennis, occurs lower down, at about half- tide mark 

 and makes similar burrows, but they are larger and deeper. This spe- 



