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Preliminary Notes on the Reproduction of Teleostean 

 Fishes in the South-Western District. 



By 

 Ernest W. L. Holt. 



During the present year tow-netting has been carried on with such 

 continuity as the weather permitted, and the fish-ova and larvae thereby 

 obtained have been studied by Mr. S. L"). Scott during the winter 

 months, and by myself since the spring. While reserving a general 

 account of the results until the close of the season, it seems advisable 

 to deal now, in however preliminary a manner, with a few species, 

 an addition to the existing knowledge of which may be found of 

 immediate use by workers in the same field. I take this opportunity 

 of expressing my indebtedness to Mr. Scott for observing certain eggs 

 which I was obliged to leave at the Laboratory at a stage too little 

 advanced for specific determination. 



Capros aper. — Linn. 



The ova of this fish were artificially fertilized by Cunningham 

 {Journ. M.B.A., N. S., I., 1889, p. 10) on August 15th, 1897, and lived 

 until a stage immediately prior to the outgrowth of a free tail, the 

 embryo exhibiting black chromatophores at the sides, near the dorsal 

 median line. The dimensions of the ovum at the latest stage studied 

 are stated to be 1*2 by 1'5 mm., that of the oil-globule "19 mm. 



One pelagic egg with a single oil-globule is very like another until 

 the ennbryo is so far advanced as to exhibit specifically diagnostic 

 characters, and I was unable to identify tow-net eggs from the above 

 description. However, on the 25th June, 1897, I was able to fertilize 

 ova taken from ripe parents trawled on the Eddy stone ground; and some 

 of these hatched out in due course, and, indeed, survived until of the 

 yolk there remained nothing but the oil-globule. I am therefore able 

 to give a sufficiently exact description of the development in ovo and 

 early larval stages. 



