86 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
LAMPREYS CLEARING A PLACE FOR THEIR NEST 
From a habitat group in the American Museum. 
Courtesy, American Museum of Natural History. 
SPRING NOTES ON LAMPREYS 
By C. M, Breder, Jr. 
LAYING the Battery on the venerable 
little side wheeler Albertina which lias 
plied from New York to Redbank, with a 
mixed cargo of passengers and freight for more 
than thirty years, a two hours’ journey through 
New York Harbor and up the Shrewsbury and 
Navesink Rivers brings one to that picturesque 
New Jersey town nestling at the bank of the 
Navesink, or North fork of the Shrewsbury, 
long famed for its winter sport of ice boating 
which is unexcelled in these parts. The journey 
made in spring on a calm day gives one sudden 
relief from the bustling activity of the city as 
soon as the old craft paddles its way into quiet 
Sandy Hook Bay, where she dodges between the 
checkering pound nets just being planted by 
the Port Monmouth fishermen to intercept the 
early runs of weakfish and menhaden. The 
shifting bottom of this sandy inlet not infre¬ 
quently embarrasses the skipper during the 
especially low tides of spring, as, occasionally 
she runs afoul of some unexpected sand bar. 
thereby prolonging the journey considerably 
beyond the allotted two hours. 
Once docked, a short walk through Redbank 
brings one to a small canoe-renting establish¬ 
ment on the historic Navesink. From this place 
by slipping up the Swimming River, which joins 
the Navesink here, to a point about ten miles 
above where a dam would make a portage 
necessary, a delightful half day may be spent 
paddling slowly along, enjoying the absence of 
one’s fellow man and the presence of innumer¬ 
able lesser animals. The trip recorded was 
made in order to observe and study the sea 
lamprey (.Petromyzon marinus Linnaeus) which 
at this time pass up these rivers in droves, 
urged to their spawning grounds by the irresist¬ 
ible forces of nature in their bodies. 
On the lower reaches of the Swimming River, 
the abundant kingfishers rattle and plunge head¬ 
long continually while less often ospreys drop 
suddenly with a splash, feet first, to seize their 
prey from beneath the surface. Along the 
banks, the spotted sandpipers teeter about con¬ 
stantly and numerous little green herons flap 
their awkward way onward a few hundred feet 
