132 THE SEA-SCORPION FAMILY. 



Four-horned Cottus. (Gottus quadricornis, L.) 



In the recent edition of the Scandinavian Fishes^ the 

 spawning season of this species is given as November, December 

 and January in the Baltic. " The roe is deposited, says Sunde- 

 vall, like that of the Perch, in one single mass ; but this is 

 attached to the bottom in water of some depth, possibly even 

 several fathoms. From a piece of roe which Baron Cedestrom 

 found in a seine, the young were hatched during the latter half 

 of April. They were then about 11 mm. in length, and their 

 external and internal organs were far more developed than is 

 generally the case in the fry of other fishes. They swam about 

 freely, but soon sought shelter in the roe from which they had 

 emerged." This account is somewhat remarkable — especially 

 in regard to the size of the larval fishes on emergence, and 

 fresh investigations are required. 



Post-larval stages of this species have occasionally been 

 obtained in the mid- water- and other nets in and off St Andrews 

 Bay during the last ten or twelve years, but the eggs have 

 never been accurately differentiated if they have ever been 

 obtained. When engaged in investigations at this laboratory 

 in March 1890 Mr Holt concluded that a cottoid larval form 

 which was familiar to us from the mouth of the Forth and 

 St Andrews Bay might belong to this species, since the larvae 

 of the short- and the long-spined were already known. A 

 certain amount of doubt remains, especially as the eggs have 

 not yet been identified, but as the larvse have not been linked 

 to other forms, and as no contra-indication is apparent, the 

 suggestion may be allowed to stand. Mr Holt's youngest 

 examples, which were 3 mm. in length and had considerable oil- 

 globules, were dead. A somewhat older form from St Andrews 

 Bay measured 408 mm. and much resembled the father-lasher. 

 " The globular urocyst, and the separation of the coalesced 

 ureters from the immediate neighbourhood of the gut appear to 

 be features essentially characteristic of the two forms in their 

 late larval stages." A brownish-yellow mass in the anterior 



' p. 179. 



