306 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1105 



fishermen that mullets with roe are occasionally 

 taken during the spring of the year. These 

 mullets were identified by the fishermen as the 

 common jumping mullet, Mugil cephalus, 

 which species is pretty definitely known to 

 spawn in this vicinity during the fall of the 

 year. 



Mr. Jacot found that aU of the young of one 

 inch and less in length taken during the winter 

 are Mugil cephalus, and all of those taken dur- 

 ing the summer are Mugil curema. This is 

 very interesting in view of the fact that the 

 adults of the latter species are rare in the 

 vicinity, while the young are quite abundant. 

 The exact spawning grounds of the muUets is 

 not known, neither has it been possible to ob- 

 tain young much less than three fourths of an 

 inch in length. For these reasons the prob- 

 ability of an early migration of the young pre- 

 sents itself, and the knowledge now gained may 

 finally aid in locating their spawning grounds. 



Mr. H. S. "Willis, a medical student of the 

 Johns Hopkins University, who was with the 

 laboratory in 1915 was detailed as naturalist 

 aboard the steamer Fish Hawk. Besides this 

 he made some camera lucida drawings for Dr. 

 Mast of scales of flounders that had been held 

 on variously colored backgrounds for a long 

 period of time. He also rendered considerable 

 assistance to the director in the preparation of 

 a report on the teleosts of the Beaufort region. 



Mrs. Effie B. Decker, of Washington, D. C, 

 an artist, was with the laboratory during both 

 seasons. She made illustrations and retouched 

 photographic plates for the various lines of 

 work conducted by the station. 



Besides the above-named individuals em- 

 ployed by the Bureau the following persons 

 visited the station as independent workers : Mr. 

 W. C. George, of the University of North Caro- 

 lina, spent a portion of June and July, 1914, at 

 the laboratory investigating the Ascidians. He 

 followed out the egg development of Stylea 

 plicata, and studied some of the phenomena of 

 degeneration and regeneration of Perophera. 



Dr. O. L. Kite, of the Henry Phipps Insti- 

 tute, Philadelphia, spent about sis weeks at 

 the laboratory during June and July, 1914, de- 

 voting his time to the study of certain phases 



of the embryology of the white sea urchin 

 Toxopneustes and that of the worm Thalas- 

 sema which inhabits the dead tests of the sand 

 dollar. Professor Ulric Dahlgren, of Prince- 

 ton University, spent several weeks at the sta- 

 tion during July and August, 1914, for the 

 purpose of collecting the young of Astroscopus 

 y-grcecum, of the electric organs of which he 

 is making an exhaustive study. His efforts at 

 that time were, however, unsuccessful, as no 

 young were obtained. Mr. August Webber, of 

 New York, N. T., spent about two weeks at the 

 laboratory during August, 1915, collecting 

 birds for the Brooklyn Institute and bird 

 stomachs for the U. S. Biological Survey. 



The director devoted such time as could be 

 spared from other duties mainly to the study of 

 the breeding habits of fishes. During April, 

 1913, Mr. Eadcliffe examined a few specimens 

 of flounders, identified as Paralichthys letho- 

 stigmus, containing roe. During 1914 and 

 1915 the spawning habits of the flounders were 

 further investigated with the view of taking up 

 the artificial propagation of these fishes if i>os- 

 sible. No flounders containing roe were taken 

 during the spring, but during the fall of each 

 of these years several specimens have been 

 secured with well-developed roe. In every case 

 these were large females, which are compara- 

 tively rare. No male with developed roe has 

 yet been observed. 



The spawning habits of the weak fish Cyno- 

 scion regalis and the pig fish Orthopristis chrys- 

 opterus were also investigated. The data col- 

 lected indicate that these species run out to sea 

 to deliver their spawn. Data were also collected 

 on the spawning habits of Bairdiella chrysura, 

 and a number of minnows. Several experi- 

 ments were performed in the laboratory with 

 the viviparous species Oamhusia affinis and 

 with Cyprinodon variegatus. Data collected 

 indicate that several of the minnows have a 

 protracted spawning season, producing eggs 

 throughout the greater part of the summer. 



It is believed that the following species were 

 taken for the first time in this vicinity during 

 the past two years: (a) Urophycis floridanus, 

 (b) Menidia heryllina, (c) Sphyrcena harra- 

 cuda, (d) Fundulus ocellaris, (e) Fundvlus 



