5.— REPORT OF OPERATIONS AT THE LABORATORY OF THE 
U. S. FISH COMMISSION, WOOD’S HOLE, MASS., DURING 
THE SUMMER OF 1888. 
By John A. Ryder, ph. d., Assistant in charge of Laboratory. 
The biologists who worked in the laboratory of the U. S. Fish Com- 
mission at Wood’s Holl, Mass.,, daring the season of 1888 were as fol- 
lows : The Commissioner, Prof. Marshall McDonald, Prof. W. K. Brooks, 
Dr. E. A. Andrews, Mr. S. Watase, Mr. T. H. Morgan, Mr. C. F. Hodge, 
Mr. H. H. Field, Mr. W. McM. Woodworth, Mr. C. H. Eigenmann, Mrs. 
Bosa Smith Eigenmann, Mr. C. F. W. McClure, Mr. J. Warne Phillips, 
Dr. H. N. Mateer, Professor Miller, Prof. Spencer Trotter, Mr. Geo. H. 
Parker, Mr. W. S. Marshall, and the writer. 
The laboratory was not formally opened for investigation until about 
July 1st. On that date the writer arrived, as the representative of the 
University of Pennsylvania, and began making collections of the larval 
and post-larval stages of fishes which have been preserved in about 150 
vials and jars for further study. The actual investigations conducted by 
the assistant in charge relate to the development of the sea bass and the 
development and anatomy of the sturgeon. Brief preliminary notices 
of this work have appeared in the American Naturalist for the months 
of July and August, 3888. The general results on the sturgeon will be 
published as a monograph by the writer, and will deal with the scientific 
and economic questions related to the inquiry. 
In the matter of collections the writer would acknowledge the impor- 
tant assistance which he has received from Mr. V. N. Edwards, collector 
of the Commission at Wood’s Holl, whose familiarity with the haunts 
and habits of the native fishes is most extensive. Many of the series 
collected serve to bring the earlier stages figured and described by Mr. 
Agassiz and the writer into connection with the final form aud coloration 
assumed by the adult. This work is one of the most important which 
can be undertaken by the Commission, as it will bring to light many 
very remarkable facts in connection with the life history and habits of 
marine species and afford the means of continuing and extending the 
very valuable investigations undertaken by Liitken and published in 
that author’s Spolia Atlantica. Many fishes undergo such startling and 
513 
H. Mis. 274 33 
