224 THE Otrawa NarTurRALIST. [March 
burst when manipulated under microscopic examination.* The 
tension, due to capillary attraction when a cover-glass was placed 
upon the glass-side, caused them to burst, and the bright oil- 
globule lightly bounded out of the egg, while the thick yolk 
slowly poured out like clear mucilage. Unfortunately, no ripe _ 
male fish was available or the early embryonic stages of the fer- 
tilised ovum, and larval form of this species, could have been 
studied for the first time. In view of the character of the eggs, 
as now discovered, the larva is without doubt a very minute and 
delicate creature, far more minute and delicate than possibly 
any other young fresh-water fish. The post-larval stages of the 
marine ling, we know, are very wonderful ‘and extraordinary 
owing to the enormous wing-like ventral fins, ‘‘their most striking 
feature being the extraordinary length of the ventral fins..... of 
an ochre yellow color, with specks of black pigment scattered over 
the inter-radial membrane.”* 
No doubt Buckland when he defined the spawning period of 
the European burbot as from the end of January to the beginning 
of March based his conclusion upon an examination of the ovaries 
in dissected specimens, and his conclusion was accurate, as the 
mature eggs now described were deposited about the twentieth of 
the month of January. The statement that the spawning sites 
selected are in the deepest holes in lakes, etc.,7 cannot be correct, 
as a delicate and practically pelagic egg, such as that now demon- 
strated to be the burbot’s egg, must be deposited in clear shallow 
water, and judging by analogy, the development will be rapid, 
and the young hatch out in a few days, possibly ten to twenty 
days. Actual observations alone can decide the validity of these 
surmises, but the newly-deposited egg, as now described, differs 
from that of any other fresh-water fish hitherto recorded. 
* Professor McIntosh noted this feature in Molva vulgaris and said, 
‘‘ The zona is not so soft and tough as in the ccd and haddock ; but shows 
greater resistance, bursting rather than collapsing under pressure.’’ Trans. 
Roy. Soc. Edin. Vol. xxxv, p. 827. 
** McIntosh and Prince : of. cit. p. 830. 
+ Buckland, Nat. Hist. Brit. Fishes, 1881, p. 35. 
