BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 109 



"In cletermiiiiiig' tlie answers to the first two qnestions I was able to 

 make some new and interesting discoveries, bnt with regard to the lat- 

 ter, my most diligent eflforts were absolutely fruitless. 



" I found that the eels when migrating to the sea in the fall took no 

 food. In many hundreds examined by me, caught during their move- 

 ment, I fouud stomach and intestines entirely empty ; that the eels dur- 

 ing their migrations eat nothing is also known to all fishermen and water- 

 men of Comacchio. At the same time, the eeis which remained in the 

 lagoons were more or less filled with food, not only those which were not 

 sufQcientlj' mature to migrate, but also a breed of eels which never goes 

 to the sea, but remains throughout its entire life in the lagoons. 



" There may be found in Comacchio, and doubtlesse very where where 

 eels live in great numbers in brackish water along the coast, a peculiar 

 group of eels which, as far as I could determine, consists entirely" of 

 sterile females. These female eels with ovaries iiresent a very peculiar 

 phenomenon ; when they are opened one finds instead of the well-known 

 yellowish-white, very fatty, cuff-shaped organ, a thin, scummy, slightly 

 folded membrane, not at all fatty, often as transparent as glass, and of 

 about the same jiroportional size as the so-called cuff-shaped organ. 

 "When this membrane is examined under the microscope there may be 

 seen in it eggs very transparent in appearance, with yolk-dots absent or 

 with yolk-dots very small and few. This organ appears to be an abnor- 

 mally-developed ovary incapable of fertilization. These sterile females, 

 which I found of all sizes, even up to the length of 27 inches, present all 

 of the acknowledged female characters in great prominence and in an 

 exaggerated degree ; the snout is broader, and often, esi^ecially at the tip 

 of the under jaw, extraordinarily broad ; the dorsal fins are, on the aver- 

 age, higher; the eyes are much smaller, especially in large specimens, 

 and the coloring is clearer; the back of a clearer green and the belly 

 yellower than in the normal female. The flesh of these sterile females 

 has a very delicate flavor, and quite different from that of other eels. 

 I was quite astonished at the fine flavor when I tasted them for the first 

 time in Comacchio. The flesh, as the expression goes, melts upon the 

 tongue. It is even possible to distinguish them while living, by feeling 

 them with the hand, their soft bodies being very different from the hard,, 

 solid, muscular flesh of the others. 



" In Comacchio these eels are called ' Pasciuti.' Coste called them 

 ' Priscetti,' and defined them to be those eels which had not become 

 ripe, but which were at least a pound in weight. The name 'Priscetti ' 

 is, however, very incorrect, as I have become convinced by questioning 

 the fish inspectors and by hearing the conversations of the fishermen^ 

 'Pasciuto' means 'pastured,' and the fishermen understand by this, 

 those eels which do not migrate, but which remain through the whole 

 year feeding in the lagoons. They include, however, under this name,. 

 eels of two kinds— the sterile females already described, and the eels 

 which are not yet ripe, as well as the normal females and supposed 



