420 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [voL. 48 
with” the opercular spines, although he was led “to agree with the 
ancients in ascribing venomous properties to the weever.” The first 
to demonstrate the existence of poison glands in the weevers was 
Leon Gressin in association with A. M. Remy (1884). He was 
followed by W. N. Parker (1888) who expressed, quite properly, 
“much regret’? that he had been “unable to obtain a copy” of 
Gressin’s thesis. 
There is essential agreement between the observations and illus- 
trations of Gressin and Parker. In the words of the latter, “ dis- 
tinct glands are present in the grooves of the opercular and dorsal. 
spines, and in the former they are very large, extending a consider- 
able distance both above and below the spine, along the greater part 
of its length. The glands consist of relatively enormous granular 
nucleated cells, the structure of which is apparently similar in both 
species.” “No special muscles are present in connection with the 
glands” and Parker “ inclined to think that in the discharge of their 
secretion the cells simply burst, their contents passing along the 
grooves amongst the other cells to the exterior.” 
The males and females have not yet been observed in the act of 
oviposition and fecundation. ‘“‘ The eggs are laid in the night,” and 
presumably “in the very early hours of the morning, just before or 
after daybreak,’ but Brook sought in vain to discover the exact 
time; he ‘“‘ watched the fish up to I A. m., and resumed watch as 
early as 5 A. M.,”’ but was never “able to catch them in the act of 
ovipositing.” In the early morning, however, eggs may appear on 
the surface of the water, bouyed up by greenish-yellow globules, and 
already visibly on the way to development. This oviposition occurs 
from April to July in northern seas. 
The embryology of two species of Trachinids is partially known 
through the labors of a number of naturalists, beginning with Brook 
in 1884, and both species were studied by Boeke in 1903, who suc- 
ceeded in fertilizing the eggs and thus studying perfectly authen- 
ticated examples. The eggs of the two are readily distinguishable, 
those of the larger fish averaging smaller and having normally only 
a single oil-globule, while the eggs of the smaller fish are mostly 
larger and have four to twenty-five oil globules. 
The eggs of the lesser weever have a diameter varying between 
1.04 and 1.27 or even 1.37 of a millimeter in diameter; they are “ of 
a beautiful pearly white, and quite translucent.” Each contains a 
variable number of oil-globules, ranging from four up to as many 
as thirty, Raffaele finding the smaller number, George Brook the 
‘ 
larger (11-30). ‘‘ These oil-globules,’ according to Brook “are 
‘ 
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