18 THE PELAGIC STAGES OF YOUNG FISHES. 



The young Lophius is very active during its embryonic stages, in strik- 

 ing contrast to the sluggish habits of the adult. The adult is, comparatively 

 speaking, a deep-water fish. It was dredged by Agassiz in the " Blake," as 

 low down as 320 fathoms, off Newport. The females undoubtedly come to 

 more shallow waters to spawn, as they are not an uncommon fish along the 

 shores during June, July, and August, being frequently found left by the 

 tide on the flats where they come to spawn. The 3"oung fishes frequently 

 assume, when at rest, an inclined position, much as the young Garpike, and 

 do not float horizontally as other bony fishes do. 



Somewhat similar to the egg-ribbons of Lophius are the masses of eggs 

 laid by Fierasfer, described by Risso and Cavolini, and also well figured 

 by Emery, who has followed the development of the young, and given 

 excellent figures of different stages. (See Emery, PI. I. Fig. 2, and PI. II. 

 Figs. 5-7.) Like the young of Lophius, they assume also a peculiar slanting 

 attitude, characteristic of certain stages of growth. It is remarkable that 

 such distant types as Lophius and Fierasfer should in their embryonic stages 

 show such close resemblances. The temporary dorsal appendage, which is 

 so prominent in the .young Fierasfer, is developed much in the same way 

 as the permanent dorsal appendages of Lophius, which are eventually 

 changed to the appendages used for fishing by the adult. What part this 

 temporary dorsal appendage plays in Fierasfer is not known; but Emery 

 supposes it to have the same function as in Lophius. 



Ctenolabrus adspersus, Walb. (C. eoeruleus, Storer.) 



Plates TIL, VIII., IX. Figs. 1-34. 



The spawning season of Ctenolabrus begins as early as the middle of 

 May (possibly earlier), and extends to about the first of July. The eggs 

 are most abundant during the last week of May and the first two weeks of 

 June. After the first of July very few Gunners are found with gravid ova- 

 ries. The eggs of Pleuronedes americanns, which resemble closely those of 

 the Gunner, and which were always confounded with them until the summer 

 of 1884, are quite abundant in July, and are found until late in August. 

 This accounts for the statement made in Agassiz's Young Stages of Osseous 

 Fishes (Part III. p. 200), that the eggs of the Cunner are found during the 

 whole summer. This confusion will hardly appear surprising in view of 

 the fact that we are unable even now to point out a single distinctive fea- 



