FOURTEEN TELEOSTEAN FISHES AT BEAUFORT, N. C. 
433 
the larger croakers were absent. It seems rather certain, therefore, that the young 
are less sensitive to low temperature than larger fish. 
SPAWNING 
The eggs of the croaker, if taken, have not been recognized. It is highly proba- 
ble, though, that they have not been secured, as winter towings (that is, during the 
spawning season of this species) have yielded very few eggs not already known. 
Furthermore, the writers have seen only one croaker — a female 170 millimeters 
(6.8 inches) long — taken at Beaufort on October 16, 1926, which contained fairly 
well developed roe, notwithstanding that numerous fish were examined over a period 
of several years. J. H. Potter, a local fish dealer of long experience, states that he has 
seen croakers with roe only in August. Walter Dudley, a local fisherman of many 
years’ experience, claims to have seen croakers with roe from time to time during the 
fall of the year. Since the young were taken first in September and throughout the 
winter, croakers with roe, of course, would be expected during the late summer, fall, 
and winter. Due to the very long spawning season, as shown by the presence of 
very young croakers in the local waters over a long period of time, it seems probable 
that no large number of fish become heavily roed at any one time. Furthermore, 
during the greater part of the spawning season large, mature croakers are very scarce 
or absent in the shallower waters where the commercial catches and our collections 
were made. It is not surprising, therefore, that croakers with roe are not seen often 
locally. Fish in spawning condition apparently are seen more frequently in other 
localities, as shown subsequently. 
Very small fry, less than 10 millimeters in length, appear in our collections for 
every month from September to May. In other words, recently hatched young were 
taken every month in the year, exclusive of June, July, and August. The presence 
of very small fry in the local waters seems to show conclusively that spawning occurs 
during nine months of the year. The larvae were not plentiful in September, but they 
were taken in considerable abundance from October to March, again becoming fewer 
in April and May. From the comparative abundance of the young in our collections, 
made over a period of four years, it may be concluded that, although some spawning 
takes place from September to May, the principal spawning period at Beaufort 
extends from October to March. 
Pearson (1929, pp. 196-198) caught larval and postlarval croakers on the coast 
of Texas, in Aransas and Corpus Christi Passes, from October to February but they 
occurred in greatest abundance in November. He concludes, therefore, that in 
Texas the height of the spawning season occurs in the last named month. Pearson, 
unlike the present investigators, seems to have had no difficulty in finding ripe adult 
croakers which, he states, were migrating from the bays to the Gulf during September 
and October. 
Welsh and Breder (1923, p. 180) state, “The spawning season is a long one, 
extending from August to December and possibly later in southern waters. ” These 
investigators had taken males with running milt at Atlantic City, N. J., early in July 
and, although they had not seen ripe females, they judged by the size of the young 
caught in Chesapeake Bay and in New York Bay in September, which ranged from 22 
to 41 millimeters in length, that spawning must occur as early as August. If the size 
of the young caught in these more northern waters may be accepted as a criterion, 
then spawning must begin earlier in Chesapeake Bay and northward than it does 
in the vicinity of Beaufort, for we have no fry over 9 millimeters in length for Sep- 
