﻿35^ SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 47 



Cottunculus, Centridermichthys, Triglops, and others, which all possess highly 

 developed anal papillae, and in which therefore copulation and internal fecun- 

 dation of the female is probably the rule." 



A legitimate inference from the facts so offered seems to be that 

 when the sexual products are fully ripe, the sexes may come together 

 and the ova are fertilized just before or during protrusion, but some- 

 times there may be some arrest or retardation in passage of the eggs 

 and then there may be internal fertilization. The subject is cer- 

 tainly worthy of study by some one favorably situated for making 

 the necessary observations and the data here given bring the litera- 

 ture up to date. 



VI 



About the beginning or middle of winter, or, it may be, not before 

 the beginning of spring, most of the adult Sculpins are ready to 

 discharge their ripe eggs. They seek fitting places to deposit their 

 burdens and generally discharge their eggs in masses which are " at 

 first quite soft, though cohering together by a secretion," but " soon 

 harden, the capsules adhering by facets to each other as in the Lump- 

 sucker, so that the egg-mass resembles a spongy structure into which 

 water freely enters, and is retained in considerable quantity, even 

 though the eggs are uncovered by the tide, a provision of some im- 

 portance." These egg-masses are extruded " in the sand or pools in 

 the rocks," or attached to stones, tangle roots, sea-weed and, " in- 

 deed, almost anything convenient." If, perchance, discarded " old 

 shoes " or " tin vessels " be lying around, they are apt to be utilized 

 as nesting places. (See plate xlix, i.) 



A ripe female, " isolated in a glass vessel " at St. Andrews, was 

 observed by Mcintosh and Masterman. " This specimen, whose 

 abdomen was distended," had been " observed to be somewhat rest- 

 less the previous day, and on the first of March it rested quietly on 

 the bottom of the vessel, and in a few seconds deposited a mass (as 

 large as a duck egg) of faintly pinkish eggs, keeping its breast-fins 

 in active motion during the process, and then it dashed through the 

 water, sending some of the eggs over the edge of the vessel." 



In a state of nature, the males are said to generally select the places 

 for deposit severally, and " to make a nest of sea-weeds and pebbles 

 for the reception of the spawn." The male also continues to keep 

 watch over the deposit and may even brood over them, clasping the 

 egg-mass with his pectoral and ventral fins, whose inner surfaces 

 are provided with asperities or hooks which enable him to obtain a 

 firmer hold of the mass. Doubtless, however, he often releases his 



