122 Papers from the Department of Marine Biology. 
tation for a teleostean fish, which in hundreds of specimens rarely 
exceeded 2 feet in total length between perpendiculars. These ovaries 
were collected during the last 10 days in May or the first week in June, 
these dates being the limits of the breeding season of this fish at Beau- 
fort (North Carolina), where it was studied. Exact data for time and 
TasBLe 5.—Ripe ovaries. 
No. Weight. | Volume. | Length. | Girth. Miscellaneous notes. 
grams c.C. mm mm 
ik 217.4 197.7 150 184 Right ovisac 16 mm. longer than left. 
2 237.6 212 115 235 Right ovisaec slightly longer than left. 
3 310 265.5 158 230 Left ovisac slightly longer and larger than 
right. 
4 339 307.8 162 213 Fresh; weight 354 g., length 172 mm., 
girth, 225 mm. 
5 395 388.6 155 256 Width 106 mm. 
6 401.8 366.2 177 220 Fresh; weight 435 g., length 190 mm., girth 
247 mm. 
7 433 379.9 170 230 Left ovisac slightly longer than right. 
8 469 438 180 243 Girth oviducts at junction, 180 mm. 
Ave 350.4 319.5 158.4] 226.4 
for size of fish can be given for 4 specimens only, the labels on the 
others having gone to pieces. However, the time limits are correct 
and it should be noted that the largest fish I ever dissected was 25 
inches long. As in the preceding cases, the order of arrangement in 
this table is ascending. 
To one accustomed to the ordinary-sized ovaries found in a teleost 
not exceeding 2 feet in length, the figures in table 5 are almost un- 
believable. None of these ovaries, it should be noted, was absolutely 
ripe, for from none would eggs come away, yet the smallest weighed 
217.4 grams and displaced 197.7 c.c. of water. At the other end of the 
list, No. 8 weighed 469 grams and had a displacement of 438 c.c. The 
average weight of the 8 is 350.4 grams, the average volume is 319.5 c.c., 
the mean length 158.4 mm. and the mean circumference 226.4 mm. 
Specimen No. 6 was collected May 30, 1909, from a fish 24.5 inches 
long. When fresh it weighed 435 grams, and after being in formalin 
for nearly nine years its weight was 401.8 grams. Its length when 
fresh was 190 mm. (the left lobe being slightly the longer); to-day 
it is 177 mm. When just excised its circumference at the junction 
of the oviducts was 175 mm. and its greatest girth 247 mm. Its 
greatest circumference is now 220 mm. This ovary is seen in ventral 
view in figure 1, plate 1, and in horizontal longitudinal section in 
figure 4, plate 3. On being dissected, in order to make the photo- 
graph from this latter figure, the right lobe was found to contain 
26 eggs, the left 20. 
Ovary No. 2 of the above table was dissected and found to have 
21 eggs in the right sac and 19 in the left. These eggs in their pediceled 
