St. Andrews Marine Lahoratort/. 53 



found that these eggs pertained to the long-rough dab, and 

 thus their comparative abundance was readily explained. A 

 similar relationship had been suspected at St. Andrews, since 

 the ova of almost all the other pleuronectids except the halibut 

 had been examined. These ova are especially abundant on 

 the fishing-grounds to the east of the Island of May. So far 

 as my experience goes they chiefly abound in March, rarely a 

 few occur in February, and in all probability, though nearly 

 ripe, none are discharged before January. Off the west coast 

 of Ireland Mr. Holt found the adults spawning daring the 

 same months, viz. from March to the beginning of May. 



It is remarkable that the obscurity surrounding the eggs of 

 so common a fish should have remained so long. In a recent 

 Scandinavian work * nothing more definite than hearsay 

 evidence is afforded, though the statement of the fishermen of 

 Bohuslan that the roe runs in February and that the fish is 

 spent by the month of March is near the truth. Moreover, 

 comparatively small specimens, both male and female, attain 

 maturity. 



By the energy of Dr. Fulton, Scientific Superintendent of 

 the Fishery Board for Scotland, a large consignment of living 

 specimens was forwarded to the Laboratory in excellent con- 

 dition this spring, so that an opportunity was given for a 

 re-examination of the development of this species. The ripe 

 females ranged from 7 to IS^- inches, and all were distinctly 

 distended with the enlarged ovaries. Moreover, as they lay 

 on the dark bottom of the tank the prominent ovarian region 

 of the coloured surface was readily distinguishable as a broad 

 pale pinkish streak. Some of the females were also marked 

 with white touches, generally in pairs over the interspinous 

 regions dorsally and ventrally, very much in the position the 

 dark touches hold in the pelagic post-larval forms. The 

 males, on the other hand, were much smaller, ranging from 

 5^ to 6f inches in total length, and presenting little or no 

 distention — a fact due to the minute size of the testes, which 

 are wholly confined to the abdominal cavity, and are only 

 about ^ to f of an inch in length in a male of 6| inches. No 

 larger male occurred in this collection, which consisted of 

 nearly sixty specimens, so that the question may be raised as 

 to the reasons for the limitation of the size of this sex and 

 the small size of the male organs. 



Most of the females were very ripe, atid a considerable 

 quantity of ova escaped on the slightest pressure and fell in 



* ' Scandinavian Fishes,' Fries, Ekstrom, and Sundevall (2nd edit., 

 1893), 



