54 A. E. HEFFORD. 



development, and by the distinctiveness of their coloured pigment. In 

 preserved specimens in which all but the black chromatophores have 

 disappeared, one can at once distinguish L. himaculatus by its relatively 

 wide unpigmented strip along the dorsum, only a very narrow line 

 being left clear between the pair of dorsal lines of chromatophores in 

 L. gouani. There is also a difference in the distribution of pigment 

 spots in the anal fin. As is to be expected, however, I have never met 

 with the young stages of L. gouani in plankton taken away from the 

 vicinity of the shore, while post-larval L. himaculatus may be taken 

 some miles out at sea. 



Zeus fabcr, L. John Dory. 



On 31st August five good-sized dories were taken in the otter-trawl 

 21 miles S.W. of Eame Head. One of these was an unripe male, and 

 three were females, which had recently spawned. From the ovary of 

 one of the latter I obtained a dead egg, which had already undergone 

 degeneration and was opaque and pale greenish in colour. The fifth 

 proved to be a female approaching ripeness, and from the ovary of this 

 I obtained a few apparently ripe eggs, wliich occurred free in the lumen. 

 The great majority of the ova, however, were still small and opaque, and 

 contained firmly in the ovigerous lamellae. The ripe eggs are large and 

 contain a relatively small greenish yellow oil-globule (Fig. 1). The 

 rather thick egg-capsule is marked by conspicuous corrugations, which 

 appear to be intertwined in a very irregular manner, and also by finer 

 striations, the former of which are doubtless merely characteristic of the 

 ovarian condition and caused by contact with vascular tissue in the 

 ovary. The yolk is colourless and homogeneous, the ripe egg being 

 translucent and glassy, but not of that clear transparency which is seen 

 in all pelagic eggs, and by transmitted light it has a slightly brownish 

 tint, which is apparently produced by the interference of the corrugated 

 capsule with the free transmission of light rays. 



The dimensions taken from four eggs are as follows : — 



In the third egg measured the oil was contained in two separate 

 globules, which is commonly the case in an unfertilized egg. The fourth 

 specimen measured was apparently not quite ripe. 



The eggs sink in sea-water of specific gravity 1*026. Fulton (8), from 



