The Ovary of Felichthys Felis, the Gaff-topsail Catfish. 119 
collected in July, and probably after the 15th, and hence these eggs 
may be considered as belonging to next year’s laying. However, the 
presence of these large eggs, together with other data, leads to the 
conjecture that there may be a second laying later in the season. 
TaBLE 2.—Spent ovaries. 
No. Weight. | Length. | Girth. | Posterior eggs. Anterior eggs. 
grams mm mm. 
1 6.1 52 65 Very small. Upto 3 mm. 
2 7.9 55 81 oO By 
3 OFT 73 83 Do 4 Me 
4 9.8 60 (2 Do Dye 
5 iy 58 87 Do 4 de 
6 IES 62 70 Do 3 4 
th 13.8 67 77 Do 3 uy, 
8 22.4 70 95 Do 8 1% 
9 10 56 74 Do 5 22 
10 AD 60 70 Do 3 7 
11 13 57 85 Do 5 , 
12 14.2 63 80 Do 3 3 
13 14.8 61 95 Do 9 ”—_one 18 mm. 
14 18 65 80 Do Y ” 
15 18 75 93 Do 8 
16 23.4 72 98 Do. @ We 
il7/ 25.4 83 105 Do: 6 
18 26.9 67 120 | About 1 mm. 
Average..| 14.9 64.2 85 Average maximum size of anterior or 
functional eggs about 5 mm. 
A brief analysis of table 2 shows that ovary No. 1 is about equal 
in size (weight, length, and circumference) to the average of the 
immature ovaries. Beginning with a weight of 6.1 grams, there is a 
progressive increase to No. 18, with a weight of 26.9 grams, the average 
being 14.9 grams. In length, the extremes are 52 to 83 mm., and in 
circumference from 65 to 120 mm. Here again we do not find all 
three maxima in the same organ. Contrasted with these extremes 
the averages are: for weight, 14.9 grams; for length, 64.2 mm.; for 
circumference, 85 mm. Unfortunately these ovaries were all dis- 
sected before any thought was had of the question of volume, but 
measurements were made of the largest eggs of next year’s crop, the 
extremes being about 2.5 to 9 mm., with an average of about 5 mm. 
These ovaries are known to be all spent, by reason of the numbers 
of torn and evacuated follicles in their forward regions. These were 
too small to be accurately counted in most of these organs. For a 
figure of such an ovary, see No. 5, plate 3. 
Table 3 lists a number of ovaries collected at various times, but all 
‘‘spent.”? All were measured and some dissected. They seemed to 
be from larger fish than the preceding. It will be seen that the 
ovisacs are frequently of unequal length, but no data were collected 
to show whether the right or left was uniformly the longer. No. 5 
is probably the ovary shown in figure 5, plate 3. The length of the 
