404 MONOGRAPH OF THE AUSTRALIAN il ARSIPOnRASCUII, 



observations made by them in the neighbourhood of Princeton, 

 New Jersey. 



According to these"authorities the eggs are deposited in shallow 

 and clear water, so that the movements of the animals may 

 readily be followed; the breeding season is in spring and the 

 Lampreys remain upon the spawning grounds for two or three 

 weeks; the nests ai^e scattered thickly about the gravelly shoals, 

 often only a few feet apart. Each nest is occupied by several 

 males and but a single female, which is conspicuous on account of 

 its greater size.* When engaged in the act of spawning the 

 Lampreys press together and cause a flurry in the water at the 

 moment when the eggs and milt are in process of emission. 

 Three or more layers of eggs are thus deposited, each layer being 

 covered by a thin sheet of sand or gravel, the parents always 

 returning to the same nest. When all the ova have been 

 deposited, the nest is strengthened by a dome-like mass of 

 pebbles and stones which the Lampreys carefully drag to the spot; 

 the nest is thus marked out as well as protected, and is said to be 

 made use of during the ensuing season, f 



The suctorial disk is used to keep the parents in position during 

 the period of the emission of the spawn. 



Uses : — All the Lampreys are esteemed as food, and there is 

 no reason to believe that the present species differ in this respect 

 from the others; in fact, Castelnau distinctly states "that they are 

 good food." 



Distribution : — South-eastern Australia and Tasmania. 



Athough long known from the neighbouring colonies of Tas- 

 mania and Victoria no record of the occurrence of a Lamprey in 

 New South Wales waters had been furnished up to 1886, when 

 the late Prof. Stephens exhibited a young example of this species 



* Other observers insist that only one pair fre([uent each nest. 



t See Bashford Dean, Fishes Living and Fossil, p. 182; consult also Gage, 

 Lake and Brook Lampreys of New York, in Wilder, Quarter-Century Book, 

 pp. 421-493, 1893. 



