44 PELAGIC FAUNA. 



multitudes of spores, uiinute algae, a peculiar algoid body 

 like a minute radiolarian, and numerous diatoms. In southern 

 waters, e.g. the estuary of the Thames, the brilliantly phos- 

 phorescent Noctiluca was conspicuous, and occasionally at 

 Plymouth the Siphonophore Diphyes. 



March. A great increase took place in the number of 

 pelagic eggs of fishes in March, those of the haddock, ling, 

 rockling, gurnard, plaice, dab, long-rough dab and flounder 

 having been met with ; while towards the end of the month 

 larval cod, plaice, rockling, and the demersal eggs of the gunnel 

 and other forms occurred. The most conspicuous larval fish, 

 however, was the herring, which was found in vast swarms in 

 the bottom-nets in such bays as that of St Andrews, where 

 the adults are seldom seen in numbers. Young appendicu- 

 larians were also frequent and in considerable profusion, yet at 

 Plymouth ripe adults were common. The pelagic shell-fishes 

 consisted of a few examples of Spinalis, other larval univalves, 

 a few minute bivalves, including mussels. The cuttle-fishes 

 were represented by a young squid an inch long. The larvse 

 (Cyphonautes) of an encrusting Polyzoan were plentiful. 



The crustaceans again comprised many adult opossum- 

 shrimps, the larvffi (Zoece) of the shore-crab, the larvse of 

 shrimps, and myriads of larvse of sea-acorns. The Copepods 

 were in swarms, Tumopteris and the larval annelids were very 

 abundant, while Sagittal, which form a favourite food-supply 

 of fishes, were in myriads. 



No larval star-fishes were present, but minute brittle-stars 

 occurred the first week. Larval sea-anemones, the young 

 of true jelly-fishes, swarms of developing small jelly-fishes 

 {Hydromeduscn) of various species were frequent. The cteno- 

 phores {Lesueuria and Pleurohrachia) were common, and larvse 

 of the former were also captured. 



April. No month presented a more conspicuous collec- 

 tion of pelagic eggs than April, the surface of the sea in 

 many parts abounding with vast multitudes of them. They 

 consisted chiefly of eggs of cod, haddock, whiting, poor cod, 

 rockling, gurnard and sprat amongst round fishes, and of 

 plaice, dab, loug-rough dab, brill and flounder amongst flat 



