The Ovary of Felichthys Felis, the Gaff-topsail Catfish. 117 
of the ovary needing it. While the eggs are in the process of making, 
the greater volume of blood goes to and through the forward branch, 
but as the breeding season approaches more and more blood is sent 
to the hinder portion, the plaits of which become blood-red in color 
and very much enlarged, while the genital papilla increases from a 
small and very indistinct pore to a genuine papilla. 
The eggs are very large, ranging from 17 to 22 mm. in diameter 
when ripe. The investing follicles are everywhere permeated with a 
network of blood-vessels, and just before the eggs ripen the whole 
anterior section of each sac is almost blood-red in color. Examined 
more closely each follicle shows beautifully its mesh of interwoven 
blood-vessels. This is faintly shown in figures 5 and 6, plates 3 and 4. 
When the follicles burst to set the eggs free into the lumen of the sac — 
a good deal of blood is lost, and if at this time the fluid from the ovi- 
duct is examined microscopically large numbers of white and red cor- 
puscles will be found mixed with small eggs, which have been torn off 
and are moving toward the exterior. It is surprising that there is not 
more bleeding. Whether the elastic fibers of the follicles by their 
contraction check the bleeding, or whether there is some secretion in 
the blood which causes contraction of the muscular fibers of the arteries, 
can not be said, but the bleeding shortly stops and the clots are a 
marked feature of the blood-vessels in the evacuated follicles. 
Probably the oviducal portion of the ovary secretes a mucus as a 
lubricant to aid in the outslipping of the eggs, a thing quite necessary 
when one considers the size of the eggs in proportion to the normal 
size of the exit channel. 
RELATIVE SIZES OF IMMATURE, SPENT, AND RIPE OVARIES. 
It is desirable to make comparison of the sizes, relative and absolute, 
of ovaries in the three stages indicated above. The large amount of 
material at hand is presented in the form of the tables appended, which, 
however, form a fairly graded whole, though in only a few cases can 
data be given for the size of the fish and the date of capture. These 
specimens have all been in formalin from 7 to 10 years, and hence their 
measurements are somewhat less than when they were alive and fresh. 
The weights are accurate, the lengths and circumferences approximate 
to within a few millimeters. 
IMMATURE OVARIES. 
In the ovaries noted in table 1, there was no evidence that eggs 
had ever come to maturity and no empty follicles. In the posterior 
section of the ovigerous portion of the ovisacs were minute straw- 
colored eggs, while in the forward part the eggs had the yellow of real 
yolk. The largest eggs ranged from 2 to 3 mm. in diameter, the 
average being about 2.5 mm. No difficulty was had, even in these 
