EEPRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OP THE CONGER. 41 



microscope for a few moments, witli such care that its health was not 

 imperilled. It was found that the dorsal fin extended a little in 

 front of the posterior extremity of the pectorals ; in the skin scat- 

 tered black chromatophores were seen, which gave it its general 

 smoky tint ; the blood contained chiefly colourless corpuscles. In 

 the tail were seen colonies of red corpuscles, motionless, and uncon- 

 nected with the blood-vessels. Little by little after this date the 

 body became more cylindrical, the head grew proportionately larger 

 and more square in shape, and at the commencement of July the 

 transformation was complete, the Leptocephalus, originally ribbon- 

 shaped and transparent, with a small head, had become a small 

 conger, opaque and coloured, with a cylindrical body and a head like 

 that of the adult conger. The young conger in July, at the com- 

 pletion of the transformation, was 9*3 cm. (3-^ in.) in length. 

 The specimen died from accident on September 5th, and it was then 

 preserved and, together with the other larva preserved in February, 

 presented to the Academy. Delage adds that the Leptocephalus is 

 hatched below the limit of low water, and usually is not found on 

 the shore until after its transformation. He says that it is devoured 

 by the pollack [Gadus pollachius) , in the stomach of which it is fre- 

 quently found. 



I will add here one or two remarks concerning Glinther's argu- 

 ments. He states in the Catalogue that he has seen a Lepto- 

 cephalus 10 inches in length, but does not say it was a Leptocephalus 

 Morrisii. We have seen that the maximum length of English 

 specimens recorded is 6 inches. Of twelve specimens from Messina, 

 whose measurements are given by Kaup, the longest is 5|- inches 

 (134 mm.), the smallest 4|- inches. Again, Grlinther's theory sup- 

 poses that the abnormal development is due to the fact that the ova 

 and larvae, which normally develop in the vicinity of the shore, have 

 been carried out to sea far away from laud. But we have seen that 

 the Leptocephali captured in England and at Messina have been taken 

 in shallow water near shore, and not in the open sea far from land. 



I have found that young conger under 15 inches in length are 

 usually not black or dark like the adults, but pink in colour. I 

 believe this to be due, not to specially coloured pigment cells, but to 

 the small number of black chromatophores which are present in the 

 skin, and which are not suiSicient to conceal the natural colour of the 

 tissues of the skin. The smallest of such conger in my collection is 

 8|- inches in length (21 cm.), and was taken in the beam trawl off 

 St. Agnes Head, on the north coast of Cornwall, April 14th, 1890. 

 Judging from the observation of Delage, this specimen was about a 

 year and a half old, having been a Leptocephalus in the preceding 

 spring, 1889, and hatched in the autumn of 11 



