402 B i'J'h'ographi'cal Notices. 



Holl"/, Meyer, Petersen, Cunningham, Tosh, Dannevig, Williamson, 

 and of Masterman and M'Intosh themselves mere moonshine ? We 

 should be very sorry to think so, though willing to allow that all 

 the piscine laws of growth are not irrevocably settled. The authors 

 admit and enunciate that " a study of the average sizes of fishes 

 shows that the annual increase is practically distinctly appreciable "' ; 

 that the artificially reared grow at a slower rate ; that cold retards 

 growth ; that the larger species of fishes have a greater rate of 

 growth from the outset ; and, lastly, that growth continues 

 throughout life — which makes their statement as above appear 

 somewhat contradictory. 



Section II. of the volume, which occupies its larger bulk, is 

 entirely devoted to " Life-Histories of the Species " of Teleosteans. 

 It embodies, in fact, in a very readable form all that is known 

 with certainty of this group up to date. Altogether 86 species are 

 recorded. The life-histories of some of these are described very 

 fully, and to others shorter notice is bestowed, namely, where there 

 is paucity of data. There is still, therefore, plenty of material 

 left, awaiting aspiring young naturalists and those in favoured 

 positions, to deal with. A great share of the work has been per- 

 formed at St. Andrews, though the Plymouth station renders an 

 admirable quota. The results of foreign savants' labours, many of 

 whom have had opportunities of studying rarer fish and their ova 

 under favourable circumstances not always accorded to our home- 

 bred investigators, are freely used; but all authorities at home and 

 abroad are frankly acknowledged. Still a condensed Bibliography 

 (such as that of Bashford Dean in ' Fishes Living and Fossil ') 

 would have been a boon to students. The writers evidently rely on 

 the extensive list of authors and works previously given in the 

 memoir Trans. Boy. Soc. Edinb. ; but, then, the student may not 

 possess this. 



To one of the writers it is a highly satisfactory budget to comment 

 on in the fact that since the late Lord Dalhousie's Koyal Commission 

 of 1883, when almost next to nothing was known of the life- 

 history of British food-fish, to-day there is a bright galaxy of forms 

 pretty well known, and that St. Andrews helped to that measure 

 with a will. 



It is premised that though the Gobiidae, Gasterosteidae, and 

 certain other families are not food-fish in the ordinary sense, yet 

 they are included as evidence of what is known in Teleost life- 

 histories. Occasionally such humble members throw a ray of light 

 on obscure points in other fish of much more importance econo- 

 mically. The material and treatment of the subject is somewhat 

 after the under-mentioned fashion, varied of course according to 

 what is known of the species &c. : — Whether the fish is a pelagic 

 or demersal spawner ; the number of ova ; comparative sizes and 

 number of females to males ; times and places of spawning ; aspect, 

 diameter, and other particulars concerning the egg ; period of incu- 

 bation and the daily progress &c. in development ; the larva and 



