266 



bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



The catches of Mackerel eggs are so small as to afford no basis for a 

 claim that the Gulf is an important spawning area for this fish. But 

 this may be purely accidental; Stations located a little differently in 

 season or locality, might have yielded very different results. And 

 caution in drawing any conclusions is especially needed in the case of a 

 fish as erratic in its movements as the IVIackerel. 



Flounder Eggs. — Eggs of three of the several species of Flounders 

 (Pleuronectidae) common in the Gulf of INIaine have been detected 

 in our hauls (Fig. 85). 



The unmistakable eggs of the Sand Dab {Hippoglossoides plates- 

 soides) were only once taken in any numbers. The 1915 records are 

 limited to May and June; and none were taken in July and August, 

 1914. 



Apparently the spawning of this species is at its height in late 

 spring; and as most of the shallow water stations were occupied in 

 late summer and autumn, our records throw very little light on spawn- 

 ing areas, etc. Sand Dab eggs occurred in only two of the quantitative 

 hauls, Stations 10275 and 10277, with four and three eggs respectively, 

 i. e., twenty and fifteen per square meter. 



Eggs of the common Rusty Flounder (Limanda fcrrugincaY occurred 

 irregularly. May to the middle of September, but were lacking in 

 the hauls in the latter half of that month and in October, table, p. 267. 



None were taken in the quantitative hauls; but the quantitative 

 net was not used in the coastal belt between Cape Ann and Cape 

 Elizabeth at the time Rust^- Flounder eggs were abundant there. 

 The records for the Rusty Flounder are even more strictly limited to 

 water shallower than 100 meters, than those for Cod and Haddock 

 (p. 257). 



1 The only Gulf of Maine species with which newly spawned eggs of the Rusty Flounder are 

 likely U) he confused is the Gunner (Tautogohbrus adspersus); and the two can usually be 

 diHliuguished hy size, the former averaging .9 mm., the latter .75-.S5 mm. in diameter. 



