26 



CHIM^ROID FISHES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT. 



the oviducts was made, for the filaments were so perfectly formed that they might 

 well have yielded some interesting notes as to their terminal. That this is finally 

 a bulbous organ there can now be no doubt. Ah Tack early made a drawing 

 of it, but the writer's skepticism* continued until word was received from Dr. 

 Wilbur (May i, 1899) that he had himself seen the terminal organ, describing it 

 as a "sort of disc," and figuring it (plate i, fig. 3) very much as Ah Tack had 

 done.f From all this it follows that the ovulation of this Chimaeroid is highly 

 specialized. The elaborate egg-case is not shot out quickly nor festooned on fixed 

 objects by its terminal filament, as in the case of recent selachians, but is carried 



Fig. 12. — Region of ventral fins of a specimen of Cfiimaera pKanlasma, in wfiich egg-capsules protruded from oviducts. This 

 specimen was taken (Misaki. Japan) in water of about 1 50 fathoms and shows the intestme everted, a condition usual in a fish 

 taken from such a depth. 



about for a longer time, protruding from the oviducts before it is made fast to a 

 suitable object. This is possibly a stone, X and if the eggs are thus attached near 

 or among rock masses, we have a suggestion why embryo-bearing capsules have 

 never been dredged. 



*Pains were taken to observe the process of depositing the eggs. To this end a fish was secured in which egg- 

 capsules were just protruding. This specimen was closely watched, but succeeded, nevertheless, in depositing the eggs 

 unobserved. The process could not have taken more than lo minutes. The capsules were immature, possessing 

 scarcely more than a stump of the filament (plate ii, fig. lo). 



tUnfortunately this capsule was lost in a hatching-case swept away by a storm. 



t.\h Tack states that several times his trawl lines have brought to the surface capsules which still retained small 

 stones attached to the terminal organ of the filament. 



