DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE-HISTOEIES OF TELEOSTEAN FISHES. 677 



appearance of finely crossed fibres, partly due in all probability to the breaking up of 

 the tissue. 



Blennius pholis. — 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 sur- 

 face, and give off branches which spring as it were from 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 contain- 

 ing 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, which, at 

 first sight, resembles an additional urinary bladder. The ducts open by an aperture 

 on a prominent papilla behind the large corrugated anal orifice. This strong papilli- 

 form protuberance approaches that in fishes which are known to copulate, but there 

 is no account 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 ova, and smaller ones of a slightly orange hue. The minute structure of these 

 somewhat peculiar ova has been carefully described by Dr Scharff.* The ova (which 

 were not quite mature) measured about "0415 of an inch in diameter. 



The above facts show that this species deposits its eggs apparently during the early 

 summer ; Parnell, indeed, names the month of June, while Dunn considers that it 

 spawns in spring. Couch states that it deposits the ova on the roof of small caverns in 

 rocks near shore (Zool., 1846, p. 1419); and Day, who quotes the above authors, adds 

 that he found minute fry at Penzance in August. At St Andrews young specimens, 

 about an inch long, and which had acquired the features of the adult, are abundant 

 in the pools of the East Rocks about the middle of September. 



Blenniops ascanii. — On 14th June 1886 a fine male, procured in a crab-pot off the 

 Buddo Rock, Fife, showed testes only partially developed. The stomach was distended 

 by eggs of Cyclopterus, upon which it had been feeding largely. 



A female in August exhibited only traces of ova — the ovaries being apparently 

 atrophied, but on the 16th September both organs were very large, the individual ova 

 reaching about ^ inch in diameter. 



Motella mustela. — On 17th July 1885, a female rockling, 6 inches long, was 

 examined, and the ovaries were found to be connate posteriorly, and contained ova of 

 some size, so that the species must pair very early in winter, and the spawning period 

 would seem to be very lengthened. In May the tanks in the Laboratory were found to 

 be full of the floating ova of this species, and during March, April, and May the ripe eggs 

 appear usually to be ready for extrusion, so that the ova of the female above referred 



* Proc. Roy. Soc, vol. xli. (1886) p. 449 ; and Quart. Jour. Micr. Sci, Aug. 1887. 



