24 EEPRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCtER. 



The other eight males were still unripe, none of them yielding 

 milt when squeezed. 



The ripe male discovered on December 13t.h, 1S88, died in the 

 aquarium on June 24th, 1889. It had taken no food since it was 

 first found to be ripe on the former date, that is for a period of six 

 months, and before its death had become very thin and feeble, and 

 somewhat crooked as well as blind. 



We have now to turn our attention to the history of the large 

 females in the aquarium. Among these there was one which was 

 distinguishable as eai-ly as December 17th, 1888, by her large size 

 and by the somewhat distended appearance of the abdominal region. 

 But at this time she was feeding voraciously. In March, 1889, I 

 was told by the attendant that this conger had ceased to feed. 

 Before that I had, with the help of the attendant, caught her in a 

 sac fastened to a large hand-net and squeezed her, but had obtained 

 no trace of eggs. On April 6th I fed the conger myself in order 

 to verify the report that this specimen had ceased to feed, and found 

 it was perfectly true. Never after that date did she take any food. 



I carefully watched this female specimen, and occasionally squeezed 

 her carefully after the same method as that already described. 

 When I tried in June I could obtain no eggs from her ; but on 

 July 24th a few eggs were obtained by squeezing. These eggs 

 were very small and were chalk-white in colour. Examined under 

 the microscope, they were perfectly opaque, the vitellus being com- 

 posed of numerous small spherules ; there were no separate oil- 

 globules, and the egg-membrane or envelope was everywhere in close 



Fio. 3. — Egg of Conger vulgaris squeezed from gravid female July 24th, 1889. Drawn one 

 hour after leaving the parent. 



contact with the vitellus. The eggs sank to the bottom in a bottle of 

 sea-water, density 1 "027. An hour after extrusion a perivitelline space 

 had developed between the enveloping membrane and the vitellus, as 



