NOTES ON TELEOSTEAN OVA AND LARVAE. 43 



associated with yellow in the posterior hemisphere of the yolk-sac. 

 The unpaired fins are pigmentless, except for a touch of yellow 

 near the origin of the dorsal fin, immediately behind the otic region. 



Apart from its peculiar colouring the larva has the unmistakable 

 gadoid form. The dorsal fin membrane arises over the occipital region, 

 reaches its greatest width above the anus, and thence tapers gradually 

 to the caudal extremity ; and similarly the greatest width of the anal 

 fin is immediately below the anus. 



On 2nd July, in a surface tow-netting 1^ miles N. by W. of the 

 Eddystone, an egg was taken which may possibly be identified with 

 this species. Its diameter was "86 mm., and its single oil-globule 

 measured "18 mm. The yolk was unsegmented. Just before the out- 

 growth of the caudal rudiment the body was abundantly besprinkled 

 with faint dark chromatophorcs. The body appeared relatively wide. 

 Next morning the larva showed a short caudal rudiment and much 

 increase of pigment, which is now canary-yellow as well as black. 

 Roundish chromatophorcs are fairly generally distributed over the 

 anterior part of the body, but the black appears to be mostly dorsal 

 and the yellow ventral. Post-anally the pigment is less dense. The 

 pellicle of the oil-globule, which has a rough, wrinkled, and rather dark 

 appearance, bears many rounded chromatophorcs of both colours, rather 

 larger than those on the embryo and constitutes the most conspicuous 

 feature of the ovum. There are a few fine, chiefly yellow chromatophorcs 

 in the dorsal part of the yolk-sac. The otocysts are relatively small 

 and the rudimentary pectoral fins appear as narrow flaps. 



Clupca sprattus. Sprat. 



This egg was the commonest of those belonging to food-fishes which 

 occurred in my samples. It was found almost continuously from the 

 middle of February to the middle of June, after which time until 12th 

 July it appeared w^ith less frequency ; which may, however, be largely 

 due to the fact that in the summer months most of my plankton was 

 collected from the open sea, while the sprat appears to favour the close 

 vicinity of Plymouth Sound or Cawsand Bay as a spawning locality 

 in the warmer months, although not in winter and early spring. Very 

 many eggs w^ere taken in the young-fish trawl in June and July. 

 The eggs, which are very characteristic from their segmented yoLk, had 

 an average diameter of 1*031 mm. for February-March, 0-973 mm. for 

 April-May, and 0-912 for June-July. The pelagic larvae, which will 

 be treated at greater length in a subsequent paper, were most abundant 

 in May and June. 



