Bibliographical Notices. 399 
secondaries. Our two male examples of this form are not 
quite fresh, and therefore the colouring below is not very 
defined, but it does not seem ever to have been rosy. It is 
possible, therefore, that a still drier type may remain to be 
discovered. 
[To be continued. ] 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
The Life-Histories of the British Marine Food-Fishes. By WiiutaM 
CarmicHaEL M‘Intosu, F.R.S., Professor, and ArrHur T'Homas 
Masrerman, Assistant Professor of Natural History in the 
University of St. Andrews. 8vo. London, 1897. Pp. xvi, 516. 
Frontispiece, 20 coloured plates, and 45 woodcuts. 
Sr. AnpRrews (now “The Gatty’”’*) Marine Laporatory has distinctly 
forged ahead in the issue of this volume, which is alike creditable 
for its clear graphic style and excellence of illustration. It is just 
such a handbook as those interested in practical ichthyology—and 
particularly the new band of students at work in marine laboratories 
—should have at hand for easy reference and instruction. It will 
save much groping for literaturé scattered through many scientific 
journals &c., home and foreign—a kind of ready reckoner in its 
way. In the preface the authors specify their respective shares in 
the labour, the major part of which comprises records of work 
accomplished at ‘*The Gatty ” itseli—and a goodly show it makes of 
“north of Tweed ” fish science ( perfervidum ingenium Scotorum). 
Stress is justly laid on Sars’s discovery of floating eggs—truly 
the starting-point of much of the subsequent ichthyological research. 
They remark how difficult it is ‘‘ to predicate from the habits of a 
fish the nature of its eggs.” 
Three propositions are laid down with respect to the pelagic eggs. 
Their pelagic character :—(1) “ leads to the dispersion of the species 
throughout the ocean”; (2) “ tends to minimize the destruction of 
the eggs by any special agency ”; (3) ‘‘appears to have played au 
important part in the preservation of the various food-fishes.” The 
first result is due to the effects of oceanic currents and tides; the 
second to the relative invisibility of the eggs ; and the third to the 
lengthening of spawning discharge and very numerous diminutive 
eggs. Howsoever these may be active agents, it nevertheless seems 
to us to follow that the essential differences, together with the 
greater fecundity of the pelagic, as contradistinguished from the 
* In courtesy to Dr. Charles H. Gatty, whose handsome gift of a new 
building has infused fresh life to the institution. 
