NOTES AND MEMOKANDA. 245 



spawn by different observers in March and May, and in the 

 Mediterranean in April. But no one had given an account 

 of the character of the fertilized ova until Mr. Dunn stated, 

 that in July, 1880, many of these fish had spawned in his 

 tank, and that the spawn floated in the water just below the 

 surface. He did not keep the ova under observation, or 

 give any description of their structure. Thei'e is only one 

 other species of the family to which the " cuckoo " belongs 

 (Carangid£e)j whose ova have been described, namely, Tem- 

 nodon saltator, Linn., the bluefish of the Atlantic shore of the 

 United States. The ova of the bluefish ai*e pelagic and 

 transparent like those of the cuckoo, but they possess certain 

 peculiarities not present in the latter. 



Although the cuckoo is worthless in the market it is 

 indirectly of economical importance, to judge from the fact 

 that I found a specimen slightly digested in the stomach of 

 a large turbot brought up in the trawl of the " Cambria.^' 



Fishermen at Plymouth say that the great abundance of 

 cuckoos in their neighbourhood is a somewhat recent pheno- 

 menon, and that they were scarce or unknown twenty years 

 ago. As a matter of fact the first recorded capture on the 

 British coasts took place in Mouut^s Bay in October, 1825. 

 In 1843 a great abundance of them is recorded to have 

 occurred at Plymouth, and the fishermen then stated that 

 they had recently increased in numbers so as to become a 

 pest. It is thus probable that, as with other fish, they may 

 in one locality become more and more numerous for some 

 years and then again become scarce. They are taken only 

 in very small numbers in the winter, and it is evident that 

 they approach the shore for the purpose of spawning in the 

 season from May till October, but they are most abundant 

 at Plymouth in July and August when spawning actually 

 takes place. 



The Breeding of the Conger — Often when fishermen are 

 asked at what time of the year a certain fish spawns they give 

 a definite answer which is correct or approximately so. They 

 can see the ripe roe in most kinds of fish when a specimen 

 is cut open, and they can see the distension of the abdomen 

 caused by the enlarged roe, while frequently the eggs flow 



