'322 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



There seems to be greater latitude in the spawning time of the pigfish than in that 

 of the squeteague. Not only was the length of individuals of the various age groups 

 much more variable, but through the entire summer fry of all sizes from i cm. up were 

 taken in great numbers in dragnets, while during the summer of 191 2 the writer was led 

 to believe that the squeteague had a very definite spawning time by the uniformity 

 of length and the absence of small fry. 



As to the winter habits of the pigfish the scales bear no evidence, since the experi- 

 ments described above indicate that feeding habits have no influence upon the formation 

 of the annuli. 



5s 

 •§ 2 



11 12 13 U 15 15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 25 



Length in cm. 

 Pig. 8. — Comparisoa of calctilated and measured lengths of the pigfish. 



Numerous efforts were made to fix upon some method of marking individual scales 

 for comparison of growth, and of paralyzing parts of the body to observe the formation of 

 radii, but these efforts were uniformly without ver}' encouraging results. To mark 

 scales the writer tried AgNOj, India ink, slips of tinfoil inserted under the scales, various 

 aniline dyes, etc., but in all cases the mark was sloughed off or had impressed itself only on 

 the mucous secretion covering the body of the fish. In order to determine empirically 

 the growth of scales, the writer removed with a pair of fine-pointed scissors a segment 

 of a scale, leaving the remainder in the scale pocket for comparison. It appears that 

 such a segment in the scale pocket is partly or completely absorbed and almost entirely 

 reirenerated. 



