1 84 



MARKETABLE BRITISH MARINE FISHES 



3 - 6 mm. long ( T Vg- inch), the yolk is much diminished, and the 

 mouth open beneath the head. On the fourth or fifth days the 

 jaws are fully formed, the yolk exhausted, and the larva begins 

 to feed. 



The transformation of the larva has not been very carefully 

 described or figured ; in fact, it has not been distinguished with 

 sufficient certainty from the larvae of other fishes of the family. 

 However, larvae identified as those of the anchovy were taken 

 July 2/th to 3 1st in the Zuyder Zee ; their lengths were 16 to 

 30 mm. (f to ii inch). 



It has been recorded that young anchovies were taken in the 

 Zuyder Zee in August, which ranged in length from 1-3 inch to 

 3'2 inches. In September fifty-two specimens were obtained rang- 

 ing from 2 inches to 4 inches in length ; in October thirty-three 



FIG. 96. Larva of the Anchovy, newly-hatched, alive, and magnified ; after 



Wenckebach. 



specimens 3 inches to 4-*- inches. It is impossible, unless we had 

 direct evidence that the growth of the anchovy was unusually 

 rapid, to suppose that these specimens were derived from spawn 

 hatched in June and July. The length of the smallest anchovies 

 present in May and June is not stated. We may consider the 

 above specimens as corresponding to pilchards of about 5 inches, 

 and to be the year-old fish. The average length of the mature 

 anchovy is 15 cm. or 6 inches, and the smallest 5] inches, a size 

 probably reached as in other cases in two years. 



\Ve do not know yet the history of the younger anchovies 

 after they are hatched in the Zuyder Zee in June and July. 

 They apparently leave that place in autumn, and return with 

 the full-grown fish the following summer. \Yc have now to 

 consider the migrations of the adults, and see how much remains 

 mysterious in the history of these fish. 



