40 A. E. HEFFORD. 



of the oil-globule were noted as being especially large. On the 5th 

 of June the larva had hatched out. Its length when about one day 

 old was 1'84 mm. (pre-anal length = 0*84 mm.). It showed the Motella 

 characteristics as described above, except as regards the distribution of 

 pigment in the pre-anal part of the body, which was practically wholly 

 dorsal (see Fig. 15). From the snout to beyond the middle of the post- 

 anal part, there was a series of black chromatophores, most of which 

 were large and possessed outgrowths extending over the upper part of 

 the sides of the trunk, often as far as the level of the notocliord. The 

 most posterior group of this series contributed the dorsal bar of the 

 typical Onos mid-post-anal zone. The corresponding ventral bar was 

 present, as well as the usual hypural patch, but the only other pigment 

 consisted of a single chromatophore below the anus and a group over 

 the posterior part of the oil-globule. The absence of pigment from the 

 peritoneal region is remarkable, and this fact especially inclines me to 

 the view that we may possibly be dealing here with an abnormal 

 specimen. Apart from this the pigmentation bears some resemblance 

 to that shown by 0. cimbrius (Ehrenbaum, op. cit.). From my present 

 knowledge of Plymouth species of rocklings, however, I will not venture 

 to suggest a definite species. Assuming that it is normal, it is certainly 

 not 0. mustela nor 0. cwibrius ; and if my previously described larva 

 (Onos, sp. A) is indeed 0. tricirratus, Bl., that species is also excluded. 

 It seems to me that my " Onos, sp. A " may with far more probability 

 be referred to Onos tricirratus, Bl., than may " Onos, sp. B." Then, by a 

 process of exhaustion — always bearing in mind, however, that our 

 knowledge of local Onos species cannot safely be regarded as complete 

 — we have left Motella fusca, Moreau (which may probably be regarded 

 with 31. niacidata of the same authority as varieties of 0. mediterrancus, 

 L.). It is at least possible that " Onos, sp. B," the larva with a pre- 

 anal dorsal row of chromatophores and no peritoneal pigment, belongs 

 to this species. 



Raniceps raninus, L. Frog-fish. 



Four eggs identified with this species were taken from a young-fish 

 trawl, mid-water haul, in Whitsand Bay on 30th August. Holt 

 obtained eggs of the same species from tow-nettings taken at various 

 depths off Plymouth, in June, July, and August, 1897, which he 

 recorded as unidentified but with apparently gadoid characters (lid, 

 p. 145). In his Irish survey the same investigator had previously met 

 with a similar egg and had described and figured it, with the twelve- 

 hour-old larva, as " Species VIII " (11a, p. 471, Figs. 27 and 36). He 

 embodies his observations upon both Irish and Plymouth material in 

 his Marseilles Museum Annals Memoir, suggesting as the possible 



