BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 127 



The spermatozoa said to have been discovered in a male eel {Angiiilla 

 bosfoniensis), according- to Dr. A. S. Packard, jr.,* turned out to be an. 

 illusion. The announcement of this discovery was recalled in the 

 Zoologischer Anzeiger, II, No. C 



2G, p. 193, as follows : " The 

 motile bodies were not sper- 

 matozoa but. 3'olk particles." 

 This correction was over- 

 looked by Yon Siebold's as- 

 sistant. Dr. Paul,t as well as 

 by S. Th. Cattiet of Arnheim, 

 although the latter had read 

 Jacoby"s§ paper, in which, at 

 page 44, the foregoing ex- 

 l)ression is mentioned, and 

 which he himself has also 

 cited in substance in the sum- 

 mary given by Jacoby. 



EXPLANATION OF FIGURE C. 



C. Undeveloped female reproduc- 

 tive organs of Conger vulgaris 

 84cm long. Oue-laalf natural 

 size ; a, stomach ; b, caecal ap- 

 pendix of stomach ; c, spleen ; 

 e, right ovary ; e', left ovary ; 

 /, swimming-bladder; g, gall- 

 bladder; h, anal opening; m, 

 urinary bladder ; j>, base of the 

 left ovary. 



The reproductive organs of 

 Conger vulgaris are very simi- 

 lar to those of Anguilla vul- 

 garis / in the undeveloi^ed 

 condition they have the ova- 

 ries lying in the same posi- 

 tion, in the form of a ruffle 

 or frill-like band of relatively 

 larger size. Conger vulgaris 

 attains almost double the size 

 of Anguilla vulgaris ; examples measuring two meters (6 feet) are not 

 uncommon. The ovaries also develop when the animal is in confine- 

 ment, and I am convinced that this is often the cause of the death of 

 the animal under such conditions. Upon opening some Conger eels 



* Zoolog. Anzeiger, II, No. 18, p. 15. 



t Oesterreichische Fischerei-Zeitung, 1880, No. 12, p. 90. 

 t Zoolog. Anzeiger, III, No. 57, p. "275. 



^Dr. L. Jiicoby, Der Fischfaiig in der Lagune von Comacchio. Berlin, Hirsch- 

 Tcald'sche Buchhandl., 1S80. 



