V GROWTH, MIGRATIONS, FOOD AND HABITS III 



The flounders above mentioned were kept a second year and 

 examined again in February and March 1892, when they were 

 two years old. There were 89 surviving, and they varied in length 

 from 3 inches to loi inches. Twelve of them were ripe males 6'4 

 to 9"2 inches long, and four were ripe females 8 4 to io'5 inches. 

 The rest showed no signs of spawning. It is remarkable that 

 the smallest ripe specimens were very nearly the same size as 

 the smallest ripe specimens taken at sea, namely, 6 inches for 

 males, 7 inches for females, a clear proof that the results were 

 not entirely altered in consequence of the confinement of the fish. 

 The largest immature fish was 97 inches long. It may be inferred 

 from this that some fish of a species may spawn for the first time 

 when two years old, while the majority are still immature. 



At the end of three years the flounders which were immature 

 at two years old were examined, and were found to range from 

 5 to II I inches, but they were not examined till May, when those 

 which had been ripe had spawned, and only two females were 

 still spawning. It is probable that few if any flat fishes are still 

 immature at three years of age. 



Observations on fishes of different sizes taken at different 

 seasons, which are detailed in the accounts given of the separate 

 species, tend to show that the conclusions reached with regard 

 to flat fishes appl}' to the majority of other kinds. It has 

 already been mentioned that at the season when the mature 

 fish are spawning large numbers of smaller fish can be cap- 

 tured which show no signs of becoming ripe, which are 

 certainly sexually immature. Broadly speaking, these are one- 

 year-old and two-year-old fish, while a few of the spawners 

 are two years old, but the majority are three years and 

 upwards. On the other hand, where a large number of fish of 

 about the same size are taken together, it is often possible to 

 conclude that they are of the same age, and to estimate that age 

 with great probability. Thus in 1894 I saw a very large number 

 of soles, plaice, lemon dabs, and common dabs taken by the 

 shrimp trawl in the Wallet off the coast of Essex. The soles 

 and lemon dabs were nearly all from 3 to 5 inches long, and as 

 the observation was made in June it could be inferred with 

 practical certainty that they were fish hatched in the previous 

 year. Again, the sardines, which form the object of a regular 

 summer fishery on the west coast of France, are certainly for 



