180 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
Habitat . — Northern Europe and in America from Labrador to Virginia. 
Chesapeake localities. — (a) Previous records: None, (b) Specimens in collection: ' Cape 
Charles city, Va., May 21, 1922. According to field notes by Dr. W. C. Kendall, two or three 
specimens were taken in the vicinity of Hampton, Va., on May 15, 1894. 
67. Genus APELTES De Kay. The four-spined stickleback 
Body moderately elongate, somewhat compressed; tail very slender, not keeled; skin naked, 
no bony plates on sides; innominate bones not joined on the median line, forming a ridge on each side 
of abdomen; gill membranes attached to the isthmus, without free edge; two to four free spines in 
the dorsal; attached spine of dorsal and of anal strong; spines of ventrals strong, serrate; a bony 
ridge on each side of spinous dorsal. A single species is known. 
87. Apeltes quadracus (Mitchill). Four-spined stickleback. 
Gasterosteus quadracus Mitchill, Trans., Lit. and Philos. Soc., I, 1814, p. 430; New York. 
Apeltes quadracus Uhler and Lugger, 1876, ed. I, p. 141; ed. II, p. 120; Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 752, PI. CXX, 
fig. 322; Smith and Kendall, 1898, p. 175; Evermann and Hildebrand, 1910, p. 160; Fowler, 1912, p. 55. 
Head 3.6 to 4.2; depth 3.6 to 5.3; D. II to IV-I, 10 to 13 (commonly III or IV-I, 11 or 12); 
A. I, 8 or 9 (commonly I, 9). Body elongate, compressed, tapering anteriorly and posteriorly; 
caudal peduncle long and slender, not much deeper than broad, its depth less than diameter of eye, 
6.6 to 10 in head; head rather long; snout pointed, its length 3 to 4.6 in head; eye 3.35 to 5.7; inter- 
orbital 4.7 to 6.8; mouth small, slightly oblique, nearly terminal; maxillary failing to reach the 
eye, scarcely as long as diameter of eye; teeth in the jaws small, pointed, in a single series; gill 
openings mostly restricted to the sides, the membranes united to the isthmus; body naked; innomi- 
nate bones extending back to the vent, bounding the lower lateral edges of the abdomen; dorsal 
fin preceded by two to four free spines and another one largely free immediately in front of the 
soft rays, the free spines when deflexed fitting into a groove, strongly divergent when erect; the 
soft dorsal low, higher anteriorly than posteriorly; caudal fin broadly rounded; anal fin with a single 
nearly free spine, the soft part similar (although a little shorter) to that of dorsal; ventral fins 
with a strong serrated spine, pointing nearly sidewise when erect, lying on inside of innominate 
bone when deflexed; pectoral fins moderate, inserted almost exactly over the base of ventrals, 1.5 
to 2.3 in head. 
