BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 3 



taken in November, 1881, show the Syrskian organs slightly larger than 

 in the Fire Island specimens, indicating possibly that functional maturity 

 of the male organs is not attained till midwinter. This is rendered all 

 the more probable from the fact that the young eels about 2 inches long 

 which constitute the swarms which come into fresh water in the spring 

 must have had three or four months during which to grow in order to 

 reach the dimensions which they attain, which would render it probable 

 that actual oviposition occurred sometime during the months of Decem- 

 ber or January. 



For a full account of what has been hitherto known in regard to the 

 breeding habits of the eel, the reader is referred to a paper by G. Brown 

 Goode, entitled " Notes on the Life history of the Eel, chiefly derived 

 from a study of recent European authorities," and published iu the Bul- 

 letin of the United States Fish Commission, I, 1881, pages 71-124. The 

 only points which the writer has more fully elaborated are such as 

 relate to the finer structure of the male organs, and he also takes pleas- 

 ure in announcing that the male eel has been positively identified from 

 at least two points along our eastern coast, the animals in both in- 

 stances showing the male reproductive elements so far advanced in de- 

 velopment that there can be but little doubt if the animals had been 

 taken a few weeks later, ripe spermatozoa would have been found in 

 the vasa deferentia of the testes. 



EXPLANATION OF FIGURES. 



Fig. 1. Vertical transverse section through one of the Syrskian lobules of the 

 male eel, showing the spermatic masses s s, the peritoneum p p p, which invests the 

 testes and is reflected over the abdominal parietes on either side of the vas deferens 

 v, which has two vessels vs vs almost underlying it. From the Fire Island specimens. 

 X35. 



Fig. 2. More magnified view of a portion of a section of the testicle of the eel, 

 showing the outer layer of peritoneum e with the septa st st extending inwards be- 

 tween the spermatic masses, and which thin out into the very thin partitions pp. 

 From a Fire Island specimen, X 200. 



3.— THE PORPOISE FISHERY OF HATTERAS, N. C. 

 By F. W. TRUE, 



Curator, Department of Mammals, United States National Museum. 

 THE SPECIES CAPTURED. 



• The primary object of my visit to Hatteras iu September last was to 

 determine whether the species of dolphin captured at that point was the 

 same as that described by Professor Cope under the name of Lageno- 

 rhynchus perspicillatus, and, if so, to obtain material to confirm or dis- 

 pel my suspicion that; this species is t he same as the I<, avutm of Gray, 



