98 'Pfo'eeedings of the Royal Irish Academy.' - ■ 



v.- — Feeding. 



As is usual amongst fishes provided witli an air'bladder, wlien brought to 

 the surface from great depths, the stomachs of the Macrurids taken by the 

 Hclga, when not actually driven into the tliroat of the fish, were found not to 

 contain any food, and our records consequently give us no information as to 

 what they feed oil ; but, on the other hand, there is evidence that they furnish 

 food for other fishes, a specimen of G. coelorhynchiis having been found in the 

 stomach of a ling {Molva ahjssormn) on station S.E. 440, 350-390 fathoms. 



We know from other sources that the Macrurids are general feeders, 

 Collett (1896, 1903, 1905) having found that stomachs of 0. nqoestris taken 

 on lines at a depth of about 100 fathoms in Norwegian fiords contained as a 

 rule large Crustacea, chiefly Fandalus boredlis, F. anim/icor'nis, P. propinquus, 

 and I'asiphae tarda. Hemimysis ahyssicola also occurred. In C. herglax, a 

 northern species not represented in the present collection,- he found Fandalus 

 horealis, Hymenodora glacialis, remains of £uccinmn and Fasus, one specimen 

 of the fish Mallotus villosus, and the brittle star Ophiacantha ahyssicola. 



That the Macrurids may be of great importance as food for other fishes 

 we learn from Gilchrist's statement that the South African Hake {Merhoccius 

 eapensis) seems to feed almost exclusively on CoelorhyncJms fasciatus, which is 

 very abundant in deep water of 100-300 fathoms off the Cape of Good Hope. 

 It is very probable that the N. Atlantic Hake also feeds on Macrurids, two 

 spec ies of which, C. coelorhynchus and M. laevis, are very abundant on the 

 Hake grounds to the S.W. of Ireland. 



VI. — Eeproduction. 



Not much is definitely known about the spawning of the Macrurids. 

 Collett (1905) has examined ripe ovarian eggs of Coryphaenoides rupestris hani 

 83 to 89 cm. in length, taken in Norway in the month of October, and found 

 that they measured 1'8 mm. in diameter, and similar eggs tioraCoryphaenoides 

 berglax of 71'5 cm., taken in July, measured 1-5 mm. 



A specimen of Lionuriis aequalis,' length 32 cm., taken by the Helga in 

 August, 1906 (S.ll. 359), had clear ova, nearly ready for extrusion. They 

 measured, after preservation in formaline, 175-1'85 mm. in diameter, the oil 

 globule measuring '43 mm. _ - 



It appears that the spiny egg of 1-5 mm. in diameter, which occurs 

 frequently over deep water in the Atlantic and Mediterranean in summer, 

 and which has been doubtfully ascribed by Lohmann and others to a .species 

 of Macruriis, is in reality the egg of a species of Seopelus (see Eapp. at Proces 

 Verbaux, Conseil International pour I'Exploration de la Mer, vol. xiii, 1911, 

 App. to Kepts. I and III). 



