NOTES ON JAPANESE MYXIN0ID8. 7 



localities it is probable thai female specimens may alone be taken. 

 That this condition sometimes occurs I have the testimony of Dr. P. 

 Schmidt of the Fishery Board of the Russian Government, who 

 informs me that during his stay at Kagoshima, he had an excellent 

 opportunity of examining this my xinoid and thai among the many 

 specimens taken he was unable to discover a single adult male. In 

 further detail : The males are taken in greater and greater abund- 

 ance from March until breeding time, when they are about three 

 times as plentiful as females. In the fall, on the other hand, the 

 relative abundance of the sexes is more than reversed, six times 

 as many females having been taken toward the end of October. 

 From this time onward, with the exception of an inconsiderable fluc- 

 tuation during the spring, males increase and females decrease in 

 number in the catches, until spawning time occurs again. The great 

 catch of females during the period immediately after spawning attests 

 either that these fish have not taken food for a long period, or that 

 they then require an exceptional amount of food to condition them 

 for the task of resorbing the empty ovarian capsules and of initiating 

 the growth of the eggs of the new season, or, possibly indeed, both 

 causes may have operated. In regard to the proportion of the sexes 

 taken during July and August, I may note that I have found similar 

 results on the California!! coast in the case of H. stouti, in a tabulation 

 of three hundred and fifty odd dissections. It is noteworthy that 

 small, sexually undifferentiated specimens were rarely taken at 

 Misaki, scarcely two per cent, of all material examined. In regard to 

 the size relations of the sexes, furthermore, the present observations 

 are closely in keeping with those which the writer has made on the 

 Çalifornian species. The largest specimen recorded was a female 

 measuring GO cm. in length ; and the largest male measured 54.5 

 cm. On the other hand, the average size of one hundred males, 



