REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1901 rl07 



movements and the food of the important sea fishes, and these 

 will be incorporated in the final report on the collections. 



The common toadfish Opsanus tau was still in breeding activ- 

 ity during the summer. Eggs were found attached to sub- 

 merged stakes, and under sunken pieces of staves, or other 

 wood, and once under a fragment of an old dress. In most 

 instances the eggs were nearly hatched or in process of 

 hatching; and sometimes the very small fish remained on the 

 space covered by the eggs and embryos. The wonderful tenacity 

 with which the egg is fastened to bark or wood is of extreme 

 interest. Long after the embryos have disappeared, the at- 

 tached portion of the shell remains and can not be removed with- 

 out actual cutting from its lodgment. 



Early in August two examples of the common eel which are 

 apparently of the male sex were secured at Whale House Hole, 

 on the south side of the bay. 



The collection contains two very fine specimens of the rough 

 silverside, Kirtlandia vagrans, which Dr Bean announces as 

 identical with the Kirtlandia laciniata of his report for 1898. 

 A study of the numerous young mullet in the collections made 

 for the State Museum and in the United States National Mu- 

 seum reveals the fact that the genus Querimana of Jordan and 

 Gilbert is merely the young form of Mugil. The anal fin of all 

 young mullets has two spines till the fish reaches a length of 

 say 35 to 40 millimeters, when the first ray has become con- 

 verted into a weak, but true, spine. • 



Prof. James L. Kellogg of Williams College continued for 

 the State Museum, during June and July, his valuable work 

 in the study of the life history of the edible clam. He pro- 

 ceeded to the east end of Long Island to seek, in the vicinity of 

 Great Peconic bay, a favorable locality for experimental cul- 

 ture of the hard clam. This he found in the vicinity of James- 

 port, where some small clams were planted. Subsequently he 

 went to Cold Spring Harbor and there planted some additional 

 individuals in the most favorable localities which could be se- 



