188 KINGSLEY AND CONN 



ter spawning fish. The eggs of the smelt (Osuierus) are over twice the size of those on 

 which we worked. The eggs of Merlucius, Microgadus, Motella, and possibly of all of the 

 Gadidae have one or more conspicuous oil globules in the deutoplasm. The eggs of the 

 Cunner [Ctenolabrus coerulens) taken from the living fish, very closely resemble our 

 specimens in size and appearance, and it seems to us that the probabilities are in favor of 

 our eggs belonging to this species. 



On the other hand one would expect to find (if there be any correspondence between 

 closely allied fish and their eggs which, with the possible exception of the Gadidae men- 

 tioned above, has not yet been shown a ) a similarity between our eggs and those of the 

 perch as described and figured by Lereboullet and Ransom. Lereboulle't describes the 

 egg of the European perch ( '54 p. 241-242) as transparent vesicles containing " glob- 

 ules graiseaux et un grosse goutte huileuse " and also as agglutinated. These features 

 were seen by us neither in the ovarian egg of the Ctenolabrus nor in the ripe, unsegmented 

 egg which we studied. Neither were there present any filiform-appendages. Ransom has 

 given a separate description of the egg of the same species, but we saw none of the pores, 

 the rythmic contractions, nor the micropjde 2 which he figures and describes, nor any such 

 tubes as he shows ( '67 a PI. XVI, fig. 26 etc.). The mode of development, especially in 

 the early stages, is also far different from that of the perch as epitomized by Lereboullet. 



The other eggs upon which observations were made were : 



I. An egg of similar size and appearance with a large reddish coloi'ed oil globule in 

 the deutoplasm. 



II. An egg of the same size with several reddish oil globules and a slightly granular 

 protoplasm and deutoplasm. 



III. A larger egg, about a twentieth of an inch in diameter with one large oil globule. 

 III. A large egg, about a fifteenth of an inch in diameter (twice that of our form) and 



like it in being perfectly transparent and in possessing no oil globule, though both its pro- 

 toplasm and deutoplasm were slightly granular. In all of these eggs the relative amount 

 of food and germinative yolk were about the same. 



These eggs all floated at or near the surface of the water and presented a marked con- 

 trast to those of an Elasmobranch, Batrachian, Reptile or Bird (and which I have never 

 happened to see mentioned as a characteristic of fish eggs) in that the germinative 

 portion is invariably downward, or on the lower surface of the egg while the deutoplasm 

 is uppermost. This peculiarity renders it very easy by inclining the microscope, to rotate 

 the egg into almost any desired position with one exception : it does not permit us to 

 obtain a surface view of the blastoderm. Nor could this be obtained by confining the egg, 

 as the slightest pressure almost immediately killed it, rupturing the vitelline membrane and 

 thus contracting the blastoderm so that nothing could be made out of it. The bad eggs 

 always sank. 



1 Ryder's papers shoulil be consulted in this connection. very minute tubes (or possibly only surrounded by punctae, 



2 During the summer of 1882 I was more fortunate, having though from what is known of other forms, the former view 

 twice seen the micropyle. This is shown in PI. xiv, figs. 1 would seem the most probable). I did not see these tubes 

 and 2. A shallow depression surrounds the micropyle which except very near the micropyle. The micropyle itself more 

 itself, when seen in optical section, is a funnebshaped tube, closely approximates that of the Herring as figured by Hofl- 

 its walls extending in some little distance beyond the rest of man ('81, PI. I, fig. 9) than it does those of the more nearly 

 the egg membrane. Near the micropyle the membrane is related Jtilis and Crenilabrus as figured by the same author 

 thickened and in surface views is seen to be permeated by on his third plate. 



