118 THE PERCH-FAMILY. 



phores, indeed, form a feature of the egg. Hatching occurred 

 in three or four days. 



The larva (Plate V, fig. 1) measures on extrusion 2'5 mm. 

 and is thus about the size of the American species (X. Uneatus). 

 It is distinguished by the presence of the large oil-globule 

 with its yellow pigment at the posterior and inferior border of 

 the ellipsoidal yolk, by the presence of a pre-anal marginal fin of 

 considerable length, for the vent is far back, and by the yellowish 

 pigment of the body and anterior part of the yolk-sac. No 

 pigment is present in the eye. On the 6th day (Plate V, fig. 2) 

 the larva measured 4"7 mm. to 4'8 mm., and the pigment had 

 grouped itself in two massive touches on the body, besides 

 patches on the head, tail and yolk-sac, but instead of the 

 yellowish hue it was now greyish-brown, with black corpuscles 

 along the abdominal roof. Only at the tip of the tail did the 

 pigment pass into the fin-membrane. The yolk soon disap- 

 peared, and by the 12th to the 15th day the post-larval sea- 

 perch had the vent about the middle of the bodj', with a long 

 pre-anal marginal fin, bluish eyes, very large ear-capsules, erect 

 breast-fins and a deep brown pigment-band along the lower 

 border of the muscle-plates from the swim-bladder nearly to the 

 tip of the tail, only a short line of pigment occurring on the 

 opposite border of the muscle-plates in the tail. The head is 

 somewhat large and the mandible massive. 



Closely allied young percoids 11 mm. in length were sent 

 from Naples by Mr H. C. Williamson in June. 



The Comber or Smooth Serranus. (Serranus cabrilla, L.) 



This species is common off the Channel Islands and the 

 southern coast, and occasionally is procured in the Moray Frith. 

 All that Day observes with regard to reproduction is that the 

 ripe fishes occurred at the end of summer or in August and 

 September. RafFaele studied the egg at Naples, where he 

 found it in spring and the beginning of summer. The egg 

 (Plate I, fig. 3) is pelagic, as first stated by Hoffman, compara- 

 tively small, viz. 0-90 mm., with a small oil-globule measuring 

 0-15 mm. in diameter. The pigment in the developing embryo 



