824 PROFESSOR W. C. M‘INTOSH AND MR E. E. PRINCE ON 
May and beginning of June, preceding the arrival of the young cod of the stage formerly 
mentioned, though perhaps not always. The characteristic features of the species, as 
distinguished from the cod of the same size (14 inch), have already been indicated. 
They consist of a deeper green hue all over, but especially anteriorly, and a much greater 
development of black pigment-corpuscles both on the body, head, and fins. The eyes 
also have a greenish hue, and these are proportionally larger than in the cod. The fins 
throughout are duskier from the black pigment, and the three dorsal and anterior anal 
are often marked by yellow pigment-grains. The pectorals in some show traces of two 
broad arches of pigment, after the manner of other larval forms, such as the gurnard and 
armed bullhead, though much less distinctly. The ventrals are well formed but small, 
and show no special elongation of the outer rays. When specimens of this and the cod 
are viewed side by side from the dorsum the difference in regard to pigment is striking, 
the green cod being almost uniformly pigmented from the tip of the snout backward, 
whereas the cod shows such chiefly on the tip of the snout and over the brain. More- 
over, the snout in the young cod is decidedly longer and narrower, so that with the 
distinction already noted in regard to the size of the eyes the whole facies differs. In 
profile the gape of the cod is the longer, the mandible apparently being longer, and the 
angle more pronounced. 
A curious feature was observed in those killed by a few drops of corrosive sublimate 
(in acetic acid), viz., the closely adpressed condition of the first dorsal fin. 
In somewhat older forms, which are abundant in the rock-pools in July and 
August, two varieties oceur, viz., one of a pale though dull green along the dorsum and 
upper lateral regions, the other of a dark olive-green in the same parts.* 
Gadus merlangus, L.—The eggs of the whiting abound in April and May, and 
probably later.t They measure 0476 in., or about 1°125 mm. In an instance 
in which they were fertilised at 3.30 p.m. on April 15, 1885, the germinal cap was 
found at 6 p.M., and forty minutes afterwards the first furrow had appeared. At 9 P.M. 
segmentation had proceeded beyond the eight-cell stage, and soon sixteen were outlined, 
the nuclei in these being apparent at 9.40 p.m. On the second day, they were in the 
multicelled stage, but no well-defined nuclear zone was visible, the latter being very 
distinct on the third day, The blastoderm had largely extended on the fourth day, and 
on the sixth the blastopore had closed, though Kuprrer’s vesicle had not yet appeared. 
Lenses and otocysts were present. No pulsations of the heart occurred early on the 
seventh day, but later intermittent contractions took place. Finely stellate chromato- 
phores develop on the yolk-sae.{ On the eighth day yellowish chromatophores appeared on 
* Report on Trawling (1884), p. 360. 
+ Day says the whiting “spawns in March not far from the shore,” though what advantage the latter situation 
gives is not stated. Mosrus and Herncke observe that, according to BENKCKE, it spawns on the Prussian coast from 
December to February, and in the Cattegat, according to Mam, from March to May. 
t Mr Cunniycuam considers that in the larval whiting the chromatophores are confined to the body of the 
fish, and are absent from the marginal fin and the surface of the yolk. His diagnosis rests on specimens captured in 
the tow-net (Jour. Mar. Soc. Biol. Assoc., N.S., i.) In our experience the whiting is a form very early characterised by 
its yellowish pigment, which invades the marginal fin. 
