[15] THE EEL QUESTION. 477 



not yet able to migrate and of those which never go into the sea but 

 spend their whole life in the lagoons, were more or less filled with rem- 

 nants of food. 



In Comacchio, and doubtless wherever large masses of eels live in 

 brackish water near the sea-coast, a certain variety of eels exists which 

 I found were barren females of the common species. They are female 

 eels whose ovarium shows an entirely anomalous condition. On opening- 

 such an eel one finds, instead of the well-known, yellowish-white, and 

 very fatty, frill-like organ, a frothy, thin band, without any fat, and 

 having but few folds, often as transparent as glass, otherwise of the 

 same breadth and length as the frill-like organ, varying, of course, 

 according to the size of the eel. If this band is examined under the 

 microscope the eggs appear entirely transparent, containing but very 

 few grains of yolk or none at all. This band, therefore, appears to be 

 an anomalously-developed barren ovarium. The outward distinguishing 

 marks of these barren females, which I found of all lengths to upwards 

 of 70 centimeters, are very striking. They show all the above-mentioned 

 distinguishing marks of the female intensified. Their snout is broader, 

 often — especially the point of the lower jaw — extraordinarily broad, the 

 dorsal fin generally higher, the eyes decidedly smaller— in large speci- 

 mens astonishingly small — and the color is generally a light, almost 

 yellowish green; the back is of a lighter green, and the belly of a 

 brighter yellow than in the common female eels. The flesh of these 

 barren eels has a very delicate but different flavor from that of the 

 other eels. I was surprised at its delicious flavor when I, for the first 

 time, ate such eels at Comacchio; the flesh actually melts on the tongue. 

 Even in the live eels one can, in feeling them with the hand, distinguish 

 their soft flesh from the hard, firm, and muscular flesh of other eels.* 



In Comacchio this eel is called "pasciute." Coste, who has not 

 paid any attention to the scientific side of the eel question or to the dis- 

 tinction of the sexes, called them "priscetti," and characterized them as 

 eels which had not yet reached maturity, but weighed at least one pound.t 

 The name "priscetti" is certainly incorrect, and I became convinced of 

 this by repeatedly questioning the superintendents of the fisheries and by 

 listening to conversations of the fishermen. J "Pasciuto" means pas- 

 tured, and lagoon fishers by this expression understand, first of all, those 

 eels which do not migrate, which do not enter the basins where eels are 

 caught during autumn, but which feed all the year round, and therefore 

 keep in the lagoon, which is their pasture ground. But they further- 



* The author of the "History of Comacchio," Francesco Bonaveri, who wrote 

 during the last century, already considered this eel, which he called "Buratello," 

 a very interesting fish. Ho thought it must he a variety peculiar to the Comacchio 

 Lagoon. 



tM. Coste : "Voyage d'exploration sur le littoral de la France et de l'ltalie." Paris, 

 1861, p. 49. 



t Spallanzani, in his above-quoted work: "Sopre le anguille" (Opere, vol. iii, 

 Milano, 1826, p. 518), calls them "presciutte." 



