THE BLENNY FAMILY. 207 



bright amber, and they are about -^ of an inch in size. The 

 minute cavern, indeed, looks as if vaulted with mosaic work. 

 He found the female several times in the cavern — in the act of 

 spawning. Day alluded to the foregoing and adds that Mr 

 Dunn thought they spawned in spring. Mr Saville Kent, 

 again, watched them breeding in the Manchester Aquarium, 

 the male mounting guard over the eggs. 



In May a large male, 6f inches long, was procured at the 

 East Rocks, St Andrews. The testes were highly developed, 

 and almost reptilian or amphibian in appearance. They form 

 two large flattened organs, or rather are rounded anteriorly, and 

 flattened on the inner side — the two bodies, in fact, being 

 precisely like the two separated halves of a long bean The 

 blood-vessels run along the flat surface, and give off branches 

 which form as it were a midrib. In colour they are of a faint 

 pinkish white. The outer or convex region is of a firmer 

 texture and more translucent than other parts of the testis, 

 being composed apparently of tubules containing spermatozoa 

 in full activity and abundant sperm-cells. The whiter opaque 

 region consists of aggregated sperm-sacs. The spermatic duct 

 leading to the genital aperture is exceedingly wide, and on 

 one side shows a spermathecal enlargement, distended like an 

 additional urinary bladder when the fish was opened. The 

 ducts debouch by an aperture on a prominent papilla behind 

 the large corrugated anal orifice. This strong papilliform 

 protuberance resembles that in fishes which are known to 

 copulate, but there is no record of such in this species. A 

 little later (viz., on the 23rd June) an adult female, 5 inches 

 long, had the ovaries much enlarged — containing a mass of 

 large bluish-grey eggs, and smaller eggs of a slightly orange hue. 

 The larger eggs, which were not quite mature, measured about 

 •0415 of an inch in diameter. The minute structure of 

 these somewhat peculiar ova has been carefully described by 

 Dr Scharff ^- He especially pointed out that in the ovary or 

 roe the sheath or follicle enclosing the developing egg is 

 peculiarly modified so as to form a thickened cushion over 

 one half of the egg. 



1 Proc. Roy. Soc, 1886, and Q. J. Mic. 8e. Aug. 1887. 



