COMl'ARATIVE STUDY OF SCOMBROID I'lSnES. 385 



inclined to believe tbat the young fish, about 27 cm long are two yeara old, 

 jind young ones about 35 cm axo three years old, and sexually mature. Thus 

 tJie gi'owth of our couiiiiou iiuK'ken4 «h?iiis to I« nearly the same as that of 

 Scomber scombrus of the Athxutic. However, this rate of growth is slow compared 

 with tliat of other scombroid fishes, and needs confirmation. 



So fiu" as I know, eggs of the saimbi-oid fislies ai'e i^elagic, spherical, and 

 each egg is provided with a pretty lai-go oil-globule. There are very little 

 distinctive characters iu eggs of different species. Eggs of Cyhium niplionium 

 are vei*y large, the largest among the pelagic eggs, found in the luhxnd Sea 

 in spring. 



Li 1920 I found a hu'va of Cijhium nij)hc»imm, 8 mm in length, among a 

 bunch of immsitui-e forms of various fishes from the bunt of a seine, hauled t<j 

 catch tlie adult of tliat species, on June 7th, iu Kagawa-ken. The larva has 

 a very long snout, powerful jaws with large teeth, prejpercle with tliree spines, 

 very short but broad precandal portion, pigment spots on the head and along 

 the ventral median line of the caudal portion. An immatiu'e fish of 33 mm in 

 length has a lai'ger head and broader body than the adult. The preopercle is 



armed with about four spines. The pectoral is 



^^»T^tf^'^iWlSsSs^,^ V— B small and rounded, and the posterior portion of 



' ^ -_* '"'*»o the second dorsal and anal begin to be sepa- 



Fig. S. Cijhiufii niphonium rated to finlets. In this specimen the precaudal 



portion was elongated to a nearly similar length 

 as the caudal. Tlie first dorsid is higher than the second. An immature fish 

 of 100 mm, caught late in Jidy, 1914, luis a still broader body than the preced- 

 ing. The fii-st doi"Sid is lower than the second dorsal, and the caudal is much 



Fig. T. Cyb'mm niphonium (immature). Nat. size. 



developed. The general appearance is quite similai' to that of the adult. The 

 colour markings are however wiuiting. In the imuiatme fish Ijelow this size 



