402 Bibliographical Notices. 
Holt, Meyer, Petersen, Cunningham, Tosh, Dannevig, Williamson, 
and of Masterman and M‘Intosh themselves mere moonshine? We 
should be very sorry to think so, though willing to allow that all 
the piscine laws of growth are not irrevocably settled. The authors 
admit and enunciate that ‘a study of the average sizes of fishes 
shows that the annual increase is practically distinctly appreciable ” ; 
that the artificially reared grow at a slower rate; that cold retards 
growth; that the larger species of fishes have a greater rate of 
growth from the outset; and, lastly, that growth continues 
throughout life—which makes their statement as above appear 
somewhat contradictory. 
Section II. of the volume, which occupies its larger bulk, is 
entirely devoted to ‘* Life-Histories of the Species” of Teleosteans. 
It embodies, in fact, in a very readable form all that is known 
with certainty of this group up to date. Altogether 86 species are 
recorded, ‘The life-histories of some of these are described very 
fully, and to others shorter notice is bestowed, namely, where there 
is paucity of data. There is still, therefore, plenty of material - 
left, awaiting aspiring young naturalists and those in favoured 
positions, to deal with. A great share of the work has been per- 
formed at St. Andrews, though the Plymouth station renders an 
admirable quota. The results of foreign savants’ labours, many of 
whom have had opportunities of studying rarer fish and their ova 
under favourable circumstances not always accorded to our home- 
bred investigators, are freely used; but all authorities at home and 
abroad are frankly acknowledged. Still a condensed Bibliography 
(such as that of Bashford Dean in ‘ Fishes Living and Fossil ’) 
would have been a boon to students. The writers evidently rely on 
the extensive list of authors and works previously given in the 
memoir Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb.; but, then, the student may not 
possess this. 
To one of the writers it is a highly satisfactory budget to comment 
on in the fact that since the late Lord Dalhousie’s Royal Commission 
of 1883, when almost next to nothing was known of the life- 
history of British food-fish, to-day there is a bright galaxy of forms 
pretty well known, and that St. Andrews helped to that measure 
with a will. 
It is premised that though the Gobiide, Gasterosteide, and 
certain other families are not food-fish in the ordinary sense, yet 
they are included as evidence of what is known in Teleost life- 
histories. Occasionally such humble members throw a ray of light 
on obscure points in other fish of much more importance econo- 
mically. The material and treatment of the subject is somewhat 
after the under-mentioned fashion, varied of course according to 
what is known of the species &c.:—Whether the fish is a pelagic 
or demersal spawner; the number of ova; comparative sizes and 
number of females to males; times and places of spawning ; aspect, 
diameter, and other particulars concerning the egg; period of incu- 
bation and the daily progress &c. in development; the larva and 
