36 EEPEODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OP THE CONGER. 



in the development, shortly after hatching, of peculiar long teeth in 

 the jaws. After the fifth day from hatching' the larvae all died. 



V. The Larva of the Gonger. 



The larval conger has been identified with certainty at a later 

 stage, a transparent peculiar fish, whose nature remained for a long 

 time doubtful, having been recently proved to be the young of 

 the conger. 



The history of our knowledge of this stage of the larva is some- 

 what curious, and I will therefore give a comprehensive summary 

 of it. About the year 1763 a specimen of an unknown transparent 

 fish of small size was captured in the sea near Holyhead by a 

 gentlemen named William Morris, by whom it was given to Pennant, 

 a celebrated zoologist of the last century. Pennant sent it to 

 Lawrence Theodore Gronow, a Dutch ichthyologist living at Leyden, 

 and the latter published a description and figure of it in the 

 first part, issued in 1763, of a work entitled Zoophylacium. 

 Gronow or Gronovius, for he wrote his scientific works in Latin, 

 gave the fish the name Leptocephalus. Pennant himself gave a 

 description and figure in all respects similar to those of Gronovius 

 in his British Zoology, vol. iii, published in 1769. Pennant calls 

 the fish the Morris after the name of its discoverer, and Lepto- 

 cephalus after Gronow. His definition is : " Small head, body 

 extremely thin, compressed sideways ; no pectoral fins." His 

 description is to the following effect : — " The length was 4 inches, 

 head very small, the body compressed sideways, extremely thin and 

 almost transparent, about ^^^^ inch thick, and in the deepest part 

 about 4rd inch in depth, towards the tail the body grew more 

 slender and ended in a point ; towards the head it sloped down, the 

 head lying far beneath the level of the back. Eyes large, teeth in 

 both jaws very small. Lateral line straight, sides marked with 

 oblique strokes that met at the lateral line. Aperture to gills 

 large. It wanted the pectoral, ventral, and caudal fins ; dorsal fin 

 extremely low and thin, extending the whole length of the back very 

 near the tail. Anal fin of the same delicacy and extending to the 

 same distance from the anus.''' 



In the later edition of the British Zoology of Pennant, which I 

 have not seen, mention is made of the capture of other specimens of 

 the Leptocephahts , one gentleman, a Mr. Hugh Davies, having seen 

 four specimens, three of which were taken in the amusement of 

 prawning below Beaumaris Green. But I believe no improvement 

 of; or addition to, the description was made in this edition. 



