54 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
graph, evidently is a long one. Therefore, the range in the size of the young of any 
one season is very great. The range in length in September, for example, according 
to examples measured extends from 2.75 to 156 millimeters. (See table 2.) Speci- 
mens of early and late spawnings, without intermediate ones, might readily lead to the 
conclusion that they represented the product of two distinct spawning periods. 
It is possible that the authors mentioned might have been misled because of insuffi- 
cient material, that is, by the absence of specimens in their collections from the entire 
spawning period. 
Spawning evidently takes place about simultaneously in Chesapeake Bay and Beau- 
fort, as Hildebrand and Schroeder (1928, p. 293) report the observation of ripe fish from 
Cape Charles, Va., in May and other ripe ones in the Norfolk (Ya.) market in June. 
These writers, also, report the capture in Chesapeake Bay of “young, three fourths 
inch or more in length, early in the summer.” Welsh and Breder (1923, p. 186), 
working at Atlantic City, N.J., on the other hand, had found no ripe fish and no 
spent ones there as late as August (1920), although many females with well-developed 
but hard, row were seen. Nor do these investigators report the capture of young 
in that locality. Therefore, it would seem that the fish spawn much later in New 
Jersey than in North Carolina. 
Figure l.—Menticinhus americanus. From a specimen 1.7 millimeters long. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE YOUNG 
Specimen 1.7 millimeters long . — The head and body are rather robust, somewhat 
compressed, greatest depth only a little less than length of body to vent. The tail 
is moderately slender, it tapers gradually and ends in a sharp point as usual in 
recently hatched teleosts. Myomeres are too indistinct to be definitely enumerated, 
about 16 evident. The mouth is very strongly oblique and moderately large, and 
prominent teeth are present on the jaws. The eye is prominent, being fully half as 
long as the head, and it has a round pupil. The vent is situated somewhat in advance 
of midbody length. The vertical finfold, in the only specimen of this size at hand, is 
largely torn away, being present, however, around the tip of the tail. The distal 
portion of the notochord is straight and in line with the axis of the body. The color 
is mostly pale, with dark markings (specks) around the mouth, along most of the 
ventral outline and along the middle of the tail. These markings are close enough 
together to form a longitudinal dark line along the ventral outline of the tail and 
another one along the middle line of the anterior portion of the tail. These dark 
lines are quite characteristic and are an aid in identifying the very small larvae with 
larger ones in which the dark lines are more strongly emphasized (fig. 1). 
