DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE HISTORY OF SOME TELEOSTS 
591 
inclusive, or possibly into the early part of October, with the principal spawning 
activities taking place during May, June, July, and August. 
Adult fish were examined for their spawning condition only during July and 
August when the egg development reported upon in the following pages was studied. 
Nearly all the adults taken during July contained ripe or nearly ripe roe. However, 
during August the percentage of spawned-out fish increased steadily, indicating that 
the end of the spawning season was approaching. 
"Nests” containing the eggs of this blenny have been found from time to time 
for several years and were first reported by Dr. R. E. Coker (in Smith, 1907, p. 377), 
who found them attached to "rocks, ascidians, shells, etc.” During the present 
investigation they have been taken on ascidians only. The ova are neatly arranged 
in rather regular series and in a single layer. They are placed close together, but do 
not touch, and one nest may cover an area of 2 to 3 square inches. 
Although naturally spawned eggs were taken several times, the development 
coidd not be observed satisfactorily within the nests, and it was found impracticable 
to remove the eggs from their place of attachment without injury. Therefore, other 
means and methods for their study had to be devised. 
On one occasion ripe fish were secured and artificially spawned in a glass dish. 
The eggs adhered equally as tightly to the glass as to the ascidians. 
Ripe or nearly ripe fish w T ere confined in 1930 in a small aquarium, the bottom of 
which had been covered with microscope slides. It was hoped that the slides woidd 
receive the eggs when cast and, if so, they could be placed under the microscope for 
the study of the development. Eggs apparently were cast, as shown by "marks” on 
the slides where they had been attached. However, they apparently had been eaten 
by the fish. Thereupon, ripe fish were secured and the eggs were expressed directly 
on microscope slides where they were fertilized and then placed into sediment dishes, 
containing sea water, for development. The slides with the eggs attached were 
removed from the water from time to time for study under the microscope. The 
eggs did not suffer injury by being exposed to the air for several minutes at a time. 
By adding water at frequent intervals in sufficient amounts to keep them moist, the 
observation could be carried on as long as desired. 
The presence of several different sizes of eggs within the ovary and the com- 
paratively small number that ripens at one time suggest that this blenny spawns sev- 
eral times during a breeding season. The eggs in the "nests” observed also were in 
several different stages of development, ranging from apparently recently laid eggs 
to others with large embryos, showing that they were not all deposited at the same 
time. It is not known, however, whether a nest is the product of a single female or 
whether it receives eggs from two or more individuals. Since all the ovaries examined 
contained eggs of several sizes, it seems possible that a nest may be the product of a 
single female and that it returns from time to time to deposit additional eggs as they 
become mature. (See footnote 7, p. 578). 
No males were found from which milt could be expressed. To obtain fertilization, 
males were killed, the testes removed, placed on a slide or in a small dish, with several 
drops of sea water, and cut and mashed into a pulp with a scalpel. Then the liquid 
was drawn off with a pipette, distributed over the freshly expressed eggs, and allowed 
to remain there for about 5 minutes before the eggs were transferred to sea water. 
Fertilization resulted readily. 
It was not observed that the nests of Hyplcurochilus geminatus are protected by 
a. parent fish like those of Hypsoblennius hentz and Chasmodes bosquianus, as stated 
elsewhere in this paper. Since the eggs of nearly all species of blennies, as far as 
