474 
As to the mode of occurrence in this locality of the adult fish a | 
few notes might be given. They are usually taken as they pass up the 
river in »schools These »schools«, or »runs«, as the gill-netters state, | 
comprise as many as thirty or forty individuals; they occur at brief | 
intervals, are usually at the beginning of the tides and as frequent by | 
day as by night. During the season of well marked »runs« the earlier 
fish are of unripe ovaries bcow fish«), valuable, therefore, in the mak- 
ing of caviare: these, accordingly might well be expected to pass fur- | 
thest up the river to spawn. From a few days to a fortnight later occur | 
spawning fishes brunners«), a »run« that is surprisingly brief, often at | 
a particular point not longer than one or two days. A great number 
of spawning fish is then usually to be taken. The fishermen maintaın 
that these spawning days occur regularly each year and at nearly cor- 
responding times; and it is of interest to record that the writer, three 
months before his visit, was told by Mr. Reuben Anderson of Dela- 
ware City the exact day when ripe fishes were to be taken. Thereafter, 
although »runners« are brought in intermittently it has proven most 
difficult to secure at the same time the spawning males and females. 
The later fishes are in the majority of cases spent (»slunkers«). 
The breeding habits of the sturgeon have been observed in a lo- 
cality a few miles below Delaware City. Here when formerly very 
abundant the fish were known to come into shallows noted for swift 
running current and clean shelly bottom, and would be seen deposit- 
ing their eggs. This would occur, according to fishermen, about the 
beginning of May and continue for three or four days. The spawning 
fish is said to have been attended by several »bucks« (males), and fre- 
quently pressed on its side as the eggs were extruded. This testimony 
appears trustworthy as the males are clearly to be distinguished by 
their smaller size; and the fishes’ white abdomen might readily be con- 
spicuous. This habit is the more probable since spent fishes, in every 
case as far as the writer is aware, are abraided, often severely scratched, 
on the ventral side. On these natural grounds the eggs were repea- 
tedly found, glued sometimes to submerged twigs, often to stones and 
shells, in patches, sometimes string-like but never in masses. Re- 
cently, however, no spawning in shallows appears to have been ob- 
served. The eggs that are occasionally taken are attached in stringy 
patches to sunken nets or water soaked brush fragments from the re- 
gion of the river’s channel. 
The channel region seems, accordingly, best adapted for trials in 
artificial propagation — and this inference the results of the writer 
seem strongly to emphasize. In one experiment, for example, where 
a half-dozen hatching boxes containing eggs similarly conditioned 
