284 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



striking contrast to the sluggish habits of the adult. The adult is 

 comparatively a deep-water fish. I have dredged it in the " Blake " 

 as low down as 320 fathoms off Newport. The females undoubtedly 

 come to shallower waters to spawn, as they are not an uncommon fish 

 during July and August, being frequently found left by the tide on the 

 flat where they come to spawn. 



The young in the stages here figured are pelagic Fishes ; they were 

 all collected, during July, August, and September, on the surface both 

 at Newport and in Massachusetts Bay. The young hatched from the 

 egg were only raised as far as the stage represented in Plate XYI. 

 fig. 4. The young fishes frequently assume, w^hen at rest, an inclined 

 position, much as the young Garpike, and do not float horizontally 

 as other bony Fishes do. See the figure in my former paper on the 

 development of the tail in Plate 11. Vol. XIII. Proc. Amer. Acad. 

 1877-78. 



Gunther* has figured (on p. 471, Introduction to the Study of Fishes) 

 a young Lophius measuring over 70™™ in length, in which there are 

 three long anterior dorsal filaments. The older of the young stages 

 I figure resemble somewhat Melanocetus. The general resemblance 

 of the more advanced stages of Lophius (Plate XVII. figs. 3, 6, 

 Plate XVIII. fig. 1) to the Ophididae and Macrouridse is very 

 striking. 



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,t who has followed the development of the young 

 and given excellent figures of different stages ; see Emery, Plate I. 

 fig. 2, Plate II. figs. 5-7. They assume also, as do the young of 

 Lophius, a peculiar slanting attitude characteristic of certain stages 

 of growth. It is most interesting that such distant types as Lophius 

 and Fierasfer should in their embryonic stages show such close re- 

 semblances. Compare the figures of this paper and figs. 5 and 6 of 

 Plate II. of Dr. Emery's Memoir. It is not extraordinary that these 

 forms should have been described under the different generic names 

 of Vexillifer, Helminthostoma, and Porobranchus. The temporary 

 dorsal appendage which is so prominent in the young Fierasfer 

 (Emery, Plate I. fig. 2) is developed much in the same way as the 



* See also Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. 1861, vli. (3), p. 190. 

 t Fauna u. Flora d. Golfes v. Neapel. II. Monographie. Fierasfer, v. Dr., 

 Carlo Emery, 1880. 



