SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 311 



cavities of the ovaries and oviducts. If ripe spermatozoa 

 were extruded these must have been emitted through the 

 (normal) female genital aperture. 



In the southern Irish Sea the hake appears to spawn 

 later in the year than its allies. Holt* found ripe 

 specimens as late as July, and concludes that, in the Irish 

 seas, the spawning period of the hake may be prolonged 

 from March until the end of July. Ewartt found that 

 the spawning took place late in the year, and M'Intosh 

 reports a ripe male in August on the East Coast of 

 Scotland. Apparently, then, the fish may spawn about 

 midsummer, and, if so, the hermaphrodite specimen here 

 described was a functional male — that is if the fish were 

 sexually functional at all — for the ovaries were those of 

 a fish which certainly had not spawned during the year 

 when it was caught, and apparently would not have done 

 so had it remained in the sea. On the other hand the 

 testes had all the appearance of nearly ripe functional 

 organs. 



It was interesting to note that two or three small 

 pear-shaped bodies possessing all the structure of a 

 testis, were attached to the outside of one of the ovaries 

 some distance from the place where the main testicular 

 mass and that of the ovaries joined. 



(2) Gurnard (Trigla gurnardus) with malformed lower jaw. 



A small grey gurnard sent me some time ago by 

 Captain Wignall shews an interesting malformation of 

 the lower jaw. The head of this fish is represented in 

 tig. 20. Seen from the side a notch appears to have been 

 cut out from the mouth of the fish, and even without 

 dissection the peculiar appearance is seen to be due to 



* Sci. Proc. Eoy. Soc. Dublin, vol. 7, p. 401, 1892. 



t 7th An. Kept. Scottish Fishery Board, pp. 3, 190, 1889. 



