230 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



iu the usual position behind the anal end of the intestine. Transparent 

 views showed that the segmental ducts were tortuous at their anterior 

 extremities. Nothing was learned of the character of the pronephros, 

 one of the features of development which may very properly be studied 

 when we have once prepared sections from the material which has been 

 preserved for the purpose. 



On the 30th of June, or when the young were seventeen days old, it 

 was determined to make an examination of the internal organs of both 

 parents, which was done in the presence of Professor Gill, to learn 

 which one of the parent fishes it was that had acted as nurse. Fortu- 

 nately there was considerable difference between the two in color; the 

 female had also lost a part of one maxillary barbel, so that it was easy 

 to distinguish them apart. The darkest specimen, with the broadest 

 head, we found was the male, and, as already stated, had acted as the 

 nurse. Upon cutting him open and removing a portion of the milt or 

 testes, they were found as a lobulated paired organ on either side of the 

 mesentery, depending from the dorsal wall of the abdomen. The lobes 

 of the testes were digitate. Upon compressing fragments of the testes 

 under the microscope, active spermatozoa were pressed out. The spent 

 roe or ovary of the female was a paired organ, the right and left sacs 

 of which were joined together posteriorly. The ovarian lobes or leaf- 

 lets were disposed transversely in the sacs. 



The foregoing account of the development and breeding habits of 

 Amiurus albidus is preliminary to a fuller one, accompanied by illustra- 

 tions, taken from hardened and preserved material in the hands of the 

 writer. 



Central Station, United States Fish Commission, 



Washington, August 1, 1S83. 



28.— OIV RAINBOW TROUT REAREO FROM EGGS BROUGHT FROITI 



CALIFORNIA. 



By ROLA1VD B12DIUOND. 



[From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



There are some Rainbow trout at the South Side Club, raised from a 

 few eggs you sent them three years since, which show an extraordinary 

 growth for their age, one being L'L* inches long and weighing fully three 

 pounds. They have begun to show a change in their spawning season, 

 the eggs having become ripe about Christmas time. 



Can you kindly spare us some more eggs this spring? The associa- 

 tion is anxious to stock' one of its ponds with this fish. 



105 Franklin Street, New York, March 28, 1883. 



