316 THE FLOUNDER FAMILY. 



red colour and the eggs numerous — a remark, however, applic- 

 able to many unripe fonns. Mobius and Heincke observe that 

 the breeding-period occurs in spring. On the coast of Sweden 

 the spawning-season is given as from February to the end of 

 April ; while in Iceland it is from June to August. On the 

 shores of North America it lasts till September. The authors 

 of the Scandinavian Fishes state that it approaches compara- 

 tively shallow places to spawn, perhaps even the mouths of 

 rivers, but the grounds on which this assertion is made are not 

 stated. Brook gives the period as from March to June ; and 

 Fulton found that the eggs were comparatively large even in 

 February, but others were far from ripe in June, as indeed 

 specimens forwarded by him in May and June clearly showed. 

 No ripe examples had ever been seen by the men on the 

 pontoon at Grimsby, and the examination of many hundreds in 

 June, 1891, was not more successful. The determination of 

 the spawning-period, indeed, even by fishery-officers stationed 

 where hundreds are landed monthly, is full of uncertainty, 

 though ovaries of 28 lbs. weight have been reported. 



Mr Holt in the beginning of May, 1892, secured some fresh 

 and apparently ripe eggs at Grimsby, their diameter ranging 

 from 3'()7 to 3"81 mm., and they were destitute of an oil- 

 globule. The capsule had faint scribbled markings. They 

 collapsed and burst very readily. Immediately after Mr Holt 

 had kindly communicated thi.s fact to one of us, Dr Fulton sent 

 ripe eggs through Mr R. Mackie, Assistant Fishery- Officer, 

 Peterhead, who removed them from a fish of 18 — 20 lbs. 

 caught on the Bergen Bank 150 miles N.E. from Peterhead, 

 and which had been three days on board. 



The eggs, partly mature and partly immature, were pre- 

 served in a strong solution of picric acid, and had shrunk 

 considerably. The perfectly ripe eggs appeared to be nearly 

 circular, and had a diameter of 3'3 mm. Those less advanced, 

 though fully 3 mm. in diameter, were more or less ovoid, as 

 usual in unripe forms, Along with the foregoing were many 

 unripe eggs having a nearly uniform diameter (r9050 to 

 2'0574 mm.). In connection with these two sizes from the 

 same fish, it is probable that most of the eggs, which in a 



