130 NOTES ON THE REPRODUCTION OF TELEOSTEAN FISHES 



about the same size. For instance, tow-net ova, which can be re- 

 ferred with reasonable certainty to Oallionymus lyra and Ctcnolabrus 

 riqycstris, show variations of "12 and '29 mm. respectively {vide pp. 112 

 and 125). The discrepancy in size cannot therefore be regarded as of 

 specific moment. 



Appeal to the characters of the embryo and larva does not afford 

 much positive assistance, since of the three Topknots but one is 

 certainly known in its early stages, and that only from a few 

 artificially- fertilised eggs and a single newly-hatched larva. This larva 

 has been described in the last number of the journal, and will be 

 figured in the Annales du Mus4e de Marseille. The Plymouth tow-net eggs 

 yield larvte which do not appear to offer important differences, though 

 in certain characters they are certainly variable. Taking those which 

 have come under my own observation, apparently similar to those 

 studied by Mr. Scott during the earlier part of the season, the larvae 

 may be said to be identical with some Irish examples which I have 

 described and figured under the title of Sp. xi. Moreover, it now 

 appears to me that my Species x. and xii. were separated from the last 

 on insufficient grounds. I do not wish to assert that all the eggs which 

 I have described under those titles were spawned by one and the same 

 species ; but that, in the light of the Plymouth specimens, I now 

 hesitate to rely on the characters which I formerly considered as 

 specific, 



Sp. X. is a St. Andrews form, and is no doubt identical with an egg 

 and larva subsequently attributed by M'Intosh {Twelfth Ami. Rep. S. F. B., 

 1894-, p. 222, PI. IV.), who appears to have overlooked my previous 

 description in this journal of the ova and larvie of the turbot, to that 

 important food-fish. According to my observations the egg, which 

 occurred at St. Andrews in April, May, and July, and in Clew Bay, 

 Ireland, in April, has a diameter of 1-00 to 1-05, and an oil-globule 

 of -18 to -20 mm. 



Sp. xi. is from Ireland, ]\Iarch and April ; the diameter is from 

 1-01 to 1-07, that of the oil-globule 18 mm. 



Sp. xii. is a title applied for the sake of continuity to a form already 

 described by M'Intosh and Prince as Sp. F. According to my own 

 measurements in Scotland and Ireland the diameter of the egg is from 

 •75 to -85 mm., that of the oil-globule from -14 to '15 mm. According 

 to M'Intosh it may reach a diameter of -9900 mm. The same egg has 

 been found by Ehrenbaum at Heligoland. 



Sp. F. or xii. differs from the rest in that the epidermis is beset with 

 small papilhe or tubercles, connected with each other by a network of 

 fine raised lines. I have already explained in the last number of this 

 journal that I can no longer regard this epidermal feature as of specific 



