THE ANNALS 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 

 No. 90. JUNE 1885. 



XXXIX. — Notes from the St. Andrews Marine Laboratory 

 {under the Fishery Board for Scotland). By Prof. 

 M'Intosh, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. 



[Plate XVI.] 

 II. On the Spawning of certain Marine Fishes. 



Clupea harengus. 



On the morning of February 5th a boat reached St. An- 

 drews harbour from the fishing-ground, having on the deck a 

 quantity of the eggs of the herring, which probably had been 

 shaken from the nets and had been for several hours in the 

 open air. Some of the ova were collected by the hand and 

 brought to the marine laboratory, where they were placed in 

 a vessel under a tiny trickle of sea-water. Their develop- 

 ment was not specially studied, though Mr. Alex. Thomson *, 

 one of the students of natural history, made a few notes and 

 several drawings at various stages. The main feature of 

 interest in connexion with the experiment was the vitality of 

 the eggs. The first embryos emerged from the eggs on the 

 6th March at noon, and thus a month elapsed from the date 



* First Prizeman in the Natural-History Class of this Session. 

 Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. xv. 30 



