CHAPTER X 



THE LIFE-HISTORIES OF FISHES 



THIS is by far the most technical part of our 

 subject, and it is quite impossible to give more 

 than a mere summary of the present state of our 

 knowledge regarding the complicated life-histories 

 of marine fishes. Such subjects as the repro- 

 duction and growth of these animals have been 

 studied continuously in Britain, Germany, and 

 Scandinavia for the last twenty years, with the 

 result that so much is now known that the gaps in 

 our knowledge of the subject are capable of easy 

 enumeration. I can only mention the more salient 

 facts and principles of this department of marine 

 zoology, and will refer the reader who wishes 

 to study it in greater detail to the numerous 

 memoirs contained in the literature of sea-fisheries 

 science. 1 



1 Cunningham's admirable account of British fishes should be 

 studied. This work, Marketable Marine Fishes, was published by the 

 Marine Biological Association in 1896. M'Intosh and Masterman's 

 Life-histories of British Marine Food Fishes (Cambridge University 

 Press, 1897) treats part of the subject in greater detail. In addition 



