DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE-HISTORIES OF TELEOSTEAN FISHES. 677 
appearance of finely crossed fibres, partly due in all probability to the breaking up of 
the tissue. 
Blennius pholis—In May a large male, 6} inches long, was procured at the East 
Rocks, St Andrews. The testes were highly developed, and almost reptilian or 
amphibian in appearance. They form two large flattened organs, or rather are rounded 
anteriorly, and flattened on the inner side—the two bodies, in fact, being precisely 
like the two separated halves of along bean. The blood-vessels run along the flat sur- 
face, and give off branches which spring as it were from a midrib. In colour they are of 
a faint pinkish white. The outer or convex region is of a firmer texture and more 
translucent than other parts of the testis, being composed apparently of tubules contain- 
ing spermatozoa in full activity and abundant sperm-cells. The whiter opaque region 
consists of aggregated sperm-sacs. The spermatic duct leading to the genital aperture 
is exceedingly wide, and on one side shows a spermathecal enlargement, which, at 
first sight, resembles an additional urinary bladder. The ducts open by an aperture 
on a prominent papilla behind the large corrugated anal orifice. This strong papilli- 
form protuberance approaches that in fishes which are known to copulate, but there 
is no account of such in this species. A little later (viz., on the 23rd June) an adult 
female, 5 inches long, had the ovaries much enlarged—containing a mass of large 
bluish-grey ova, and smaller ones of a slightly orange hue. The minute structure of these 
somewhat peculiar ova has been carefully described by Dr Scuarrr.* The ova (which 
were not quite mature) measured about ‘0415 of an inch in diameter. 
The above facts show that this species deposits its eggs apparently during the early 
summer; PARNELL, indeed, names the month of June, while Dunn considers that it 
spawns in spring. Covcn states that it deposits the ova on the roof of small caverns in 
rocks near shore (Zool., 1846, p. 1419); and Day, who quotes the above authors, adds 
that he found minute fry at Penzance in August. At St Andrews young specimens, 
about an inch long, and which had acquired the features of the adult, are abundant 
in the pools of the East Rocks about the middle of September. 
Blenniops ascanit.—On 14th June 1886 a fine male, procured in a crab-pot off the 
Buddo Rock, Fife, showed testes only partially developed. The stomach was distended 
by eggs of Cyclopterus, wpon which it had been feeding largely. 
A female in August exhibited only traces of ova—the ovaries being apparently 
atrophied, but on the 16th September both organs were very large, the individual ova 
reaching about y'; inch in diameter. 
Motella mustela—On 17th July 1885, a female rockling, 6 inches long, was 
examined, and the ovaries were found to be connate posteriorly, and contained ova of 
some size, so that the species must pair very early in winter, and the spawning period 
would seem to be very lengthened. In May the tanks in the Laboratory were found to 
be full of the floating ova of this species, and during March, April, and May the ripe eggs 
appear usually to be ready for extrusion, so that the ova of the female above referred 
* Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. xli. (1886) p. 449 ; and Quart. Jour. Mier. Sci., Aug. 1887. 
