242 Prof. M'Intosh's Notes fi-om the 



For many years we have been familiar with the appearance 

 in vast numbers of the larval and early post-larval sand-eels 

 in the bottom tow-nets in March ; but, though it was clear 

 that deposition of the eggs from w'hich these sprang could not 

 have been longer distant than a month or six weeks, still the 

 actually ripe adults had not been seen at the commencement 

 of the year. They had, on the other hand, been examined 

 and described in May, and even in the beginning of July. 

 This year the storm from the 8th to the 11th of January 

 tossed some sand-eels on shore, some of them with their 

 distended bodies firmly encircled by worn valves of the cockle 

 in which a hole had been pierced, as if, in the extremities of 

 the situation, they had made an effort to plunge into anything. 

 All were examples of the lesser sand-eel, ranging from 6| to 

 7g inches, one of the smallest being a male with the abdomen 

 distended with nearly ripe milt, the male organs in this species 

 being as large proportionally as the ovaries in the female. 

 Some of the females also had the abdomen fully distended by 

 ripe ovaries. The ovaries had a pale greenish-yellow hue, the 

 individual eggs measuring about "838 millim., thus exceeding 

 in size those of the larger sand-eel given in the account 

 above alluded to. The oil-globule was about '24 millim., 

 also exceeding that of the larger species. As the specimens 

 had been dead for a day or two, the present appearances 

 cannot be regarded as perfectly normal. 



The simultaneous ripening of the eggs in such an ovary 

 was well illustrated in this species, the surface of the organ 

 being minutely botrj'oidal from the projecting axis of the 

 eggs, which w^ere arranged in a kind of mosaic. These eggs 

 were slightly cloudy and the oil-globule was faintly greenish. 

 This differs therefore from the perfectly fresh Q^^, which has 

 a dull golden or honey-colour (pinkish orange by transmitted 

 light). The larger sand-eel, again, has a greenish oil-globule, 

 so that such a tint seems to be prevalent in the genus. The 

 tint of tiie oil-globule, however, in the lesser sand-eel must 

 undergo changes, since it is scarcely tinted in the larval fish 

 alter it rests on the surface of the sand. 



One female in the six examples procured had ovaries 

 almost spent, only a few ripe ova occurring towards the poste- 

 rior end of the organs. The lean lanky body externally waa 

 diagnostic. 



1 he difficulty with regard to the spawning of the lesser 

 sand-eel is thus removed, and in consonance witli what was 

 supposed to be the explanation of the facts in 18 J 1 *. They 



• IS'inth Ann. IJep. Scot. Fish. Roard, p. .^3.'i. 



