30 Aquatic Zite 
species to changed environment. Henry 
W. Fowler, in his work on the fishes of 
New Jersey (Ann. Rep. New Jersey 
State Museum 1905), describes its 
spawning habits as follows: 
“This interesting little fish was found 
in abundance May 7th, 1905, swimming 
in the lower waters of the small creek at 
Cape May Point. This stream flows di- 
rectly into the salt water of the bay side. 
At its mouth but few of the fish occur, 
Fundulus heteroclitus 
though thirty yards or so above they are 
abundant in numerous schools or shoals 
along the shallows of the banks, which 
are formed of sand. We did not notice 
them to any extent above these places 
or other than where the stream passes 
over the sandy beach. They were easily 
frightened into the deeper waters or 
channel by any sudden movement, 
though not at all disturbed by loud talk- 
ing or other noise. Provided there is no 
movement on the banks one may watch 
them conduct their spawning for a long 
time. hey do not remain in the chan- 
nel long, but soon swim up in the shal- 
lows close to the shore, and often when 
the orgasm takes place they are more 
or less out of the water. The usual 
method is for a male to swim rather 
nervously alongside a female and crowd 
her close on the shore, at the same time 
bending his body in a somewhat undu- 
lated fashion with the brilliant dorsal 
fin thrown over her back, and then with 
a rapid flapping of his tail, which pro- 
duces a rippling sound in the water, the 
milt 1s apparently expelled. This opera- 
tion lasts but several seconds, and some- 
times the participants find themselves 
washed ashore, when there is a very hur- 
ried attempt to get back into the water. 
All along these banks we could hear 
these little ripplings and see the fish wrig- 
eling back into the water. Sometimes 
copulation would take place entirely un- 
der the water on the little shoals. It did 
not appear that it was always necessary 
ior these animals to have a projection or 
some support of a similar nature from 
the bottom to enable them to successfully 
accomplish their purpose. In fact, they 
would frequently fasten alongside one 
another on a perfectly smooth bottom, in 
which case the male would apparentty 
crowd the female down. I was unable 
to determine the manner of coupling, if 
such takes place, of the organs of gen- 
eration. Examples freshly caught would 
produce mult or ova, as the sex of the in- 
dividual may be, if they were forced out 
by pressure on the abdomen with the 
thumb. The milt was purely white and 
milky. The ova was about the size of 
No. 4 shot, translucent, and of a very 
pale brownish. No male organ of gen- 
eration was noted. The female has the 
oviduct extending along the front of the 
anal fin nearly to its lower margin, and 
the ova could be forced through it only 
in regular sequence. When in the water 
the two sexes are readily recognized, as 
they are very distinctly marked. The 
males are blackish, and are decidedly 
black in contrast alongside the pale 
brownish females. Rather “small males, 
of about two inches in length, display 
the dark and brilliant colors of the older 
ones. The females were frequently seen 
swimming to and fro over the shallows, 
suddenly inclining their bodies somewhat 
on the side so that their shining whit- 
ish abdomens may be readily seen. I did 
not determine whether the eggs were 
