IX THE SOUTH-WESTERN DISTRICT. 335 



large bass are very old members of the Laboratory staff, and, since 

 no reproductive activity has been observed in previous years, it is 

 quite probable that they may have lost count of the seasons. 



Gobius niger. Linn. 



In so far as concerns the neighbourhood of Plymouth, this species 

 appears to be chieily estuarine in distriliution, being common throughout 

 the year in the Hamoaze and in the lower reach of the Lynher river. 

 We have little doubt but that spawning takes place to a large extent 

 in the estuary, though, as a matter of fact, we have only found the 

 ova, identified from Petersen's description and figures,* on an old tin 

 trawled in Cawsand Bay on the 14th July. 



Gobius paganellus. Gm. Linn. 



In Plymouth Sound this Goby is common enough, between tide- 

 marks and elsewhere, on rather rough ground, but has not been taken, 

 to our knowledge, in any part of the estuaries. During the present 

 spring a number of specimens were kept in a large table-tank in the 

 Laboratory, In April two males assumed the breeding livery, which 

 may, for the present, be sufficiently described as a deep purplish madder 

 all over the head and body, and nearly black on the anterior parts, 

 while the border of the anterior dorsal fin is cream-colour or orange. 

 Nests were chosen under a flat stone leaning against the side of the 

 tank, and under the convex valve of a scallop, Pccten maximus. Ova 

 were deposited, in all probability by several females, but it is not 

 possible to give the size of the parent of the specimens measured. 

 The latter are from 1"84 to 1'90 mm. in length. The shape is rather 

 regularly fusiform, the greatest width, rather less than half the length, 

 occurring about the middle. The base is about one-tenth to one-twelfth 

 of the length; the apex is in all cases somewhat pointed, in most 

 examples most distinctly so, and never broadly rounded as in G. niger. 

 The fixing apparatus differs in no important particular from that of 

 0. nigcr. The yolk is opaque, and yellowish in colour. 



Petersen (oj). cit., p. 7) has criticised a drawing given by one of us, 

 which purports to represent the ova of G. nigcr. As appears from the 

 text, the drawin" and identification are those of l*rofessor M'lutosh. 

 In the light of our present observation it becomes evident that the 

 parent species was G. paganellus, and not G. niger. In future, Avhere 

 the matter is not complicated by the occurrence of other large Gobies, 

 such as G. Friesii, it should be easy to distinguish the ova of G, nigcr 



• " Ou tho eggs and breeding of our Gobiidte." From the Danish biological Station. 

 1891 (1S92), p. 2, Tav. i. b. 



