FOURTEEN TELEOSTEAN FISHES AT BEAUFORT, N. C. 
469 
and a weight of 10 to 25 pounds. No definite record of the maximum size reached by 
albiguttus (or lethostigums ) has come to our notice. It is probable that the 29-inch 
specimen, mentioned in the foregoing lines, is the largest fish of this form of which 
there is a definite record. 
A slight migration away from the harbor and adjacent estuaries no doubt is 
made by the summer flounders during late autumn. Both species are present during 
the winter, although in reduced numbers, and the migration certainly is less pro- 
nounced than in the pigfish, spot, croaker, and many other species. 
SPAWNING 
Summer flounders with roe have been observed infrequently during the present 
investigation. A few female Paralichthys albiguttus with large roe were seen in October 
and November and a few P. dentatus in November with one in February. However, 
no ripe, or nearly ripe, males were seen. Neither have the eggs been taken, or if 
secured (which is highly improbable) they have not been recognized. 
During two successive autumns adult flounders were confined in aquarium tanks 
and held throughout the winter. The tanks were furnished with a screened overflow 
and a small stream of running water from a storage tank into which water from the 
harbor was pumped daily. It was hoped that the fish would develop roe and cast 
eggs in the tanks. Although the animals appeared to be healthy and took food (cut 
fish) regularly, they failed to develop spawn, and our efforts to obtain the eggs for 
study in this way failed, as did ail efforts to obtain them in nature. It seems prob- 
able, therefore, that the summer flounders, like the spot, will not spawn in captivity 
under the conditions provided at Beaufort. 
Very small fry, including some slightly under 3 millimeters in length that evi- 
dently had been hatched very recently, were taken many times and in considerable 
numbers, as shown by Table 12. The duration of spawning no doubt is fairly accu- 
rately shown by the presence of the larvae in the collections. However, since two 
species of flounders very probably are included among the fry (which we are unable 
to separate), the duration of the spawning season for each species can not be deter- 
mined. Although the reproductive periods of the two species overlap, as shown by 
the presence in November of nearly ripe females of both species, it is possible that they 
do not begin or end simultaneously. However, Table 12 shows only one main unin- 
terrupted period when the larvae were numerous in the collections, indicating either 
that the spawning periods of P. albiguttus and P. dentatus occur simultaneously, or 
that only one species is represented. 
It will be seen from Table 12 that small fry are numerous in the collections only- 
in November and December, notwithstanding that a few 7 were taken in September, 
several in January and February, and a few more in March, April, and May. These 
data, then, indicate that some spawning takes place from September to May and that 
the height of the season occurs in November and December. This period of spawning 
coincides with the observation of several ripening females in October and November 
and one in February, as reported in a preceding paragraph. 
Spawning probably takes place chiefly, if not wholly, at sea. This conclusion is 
arrived at from the distribution of the very small fry which were taken much more 
frequently off Beaufort Inlet than within the harbor, as shown subsequently (p. 474.) 
The literature contains very little information concerning the spawning habits 
of Paralichthjrs. Hildebrand and Schroeder (1928, p. 166) state that specimens of 
P. dentatus taken in Chesapeake Bay during October had comparatively large gonads. 
