THE FLOUNDKR FAMILY. 331 



shown in Plate XIII, lig. 1, and it is about 2-2 mm. in length or 

 a little more. The increase in the red pigment is characteristic, 

 the body under a lens having a brick-red hue with black chro- 

 matophores scattered over the surface. The rounded reddish 

 chromatophores of the embryo were now much branched on the 

 head, trunk, two caudal bars and the rectal process, and some 

 had appeared around the oil-globule and at the throat as well 

 as in the cardiac region. The two brownish bars at the tail 

 had a somewhat triangular or bluntly conical form, and extended 

 from the trunk to the border of the marginal fin. A slight 

 patch also occurred dorsally in the latter about midway between 

 the caudal bar and the head. The finely ramified black chro- 

 matophores covered the entire region tinted reddish, so that 

 only the middle of the yolk-sac was translucent, and even ou 

 this were a few much branched red corpuscles. The ventral 

 surface of the yolk-sac, as well as other parts, had numerous 

 black chromatophores. By transmitted light the coloured parts 

 had a fine ruby-red hue. The eyes had a similar colour, a few 

 dark touches also being present. The abundance of pigment 

 obscured the ear-corpuscles and their two otoliths. Even at 

 this stage the larval fishes darted about at intervals, after 

 resting on the bottom, or floating with the yolk-sac uppermost 

 and the tail downwards. In Holt's examples the oil-globule 

 was ventral, but in ours it occupied a more or less posterior 

 position. 



After two days, the pigment in the eyes had increased, and 

 they were slightly iridescent. The black chromatophores over 

 the body were more abundant, while the bars behind the vent 

 were broader, especially the superior, which almost touched the 

 margin of the fin. The mouth was open, and the mandible 

 protruded. The oil-globule adhered to the remnant of the yolk 

 nearly in the middle of the abdomen, though it was slightly 

 variable in position, in some having moved upward and back- 

 ward with the diminishing yolk. 



On the 1st of July, the larval turbot evinced greater activity 

 — darting through the water at intervals, and again resting on 

 the bottom. The increase of the black pigment rendered the 

 body dusky brown. The two posterior bars had spread out, and 



