864 PROFESSOR W. C. M'INTOSH AND MR E. E. PRINCE ON 



the mid-water net on the 28th April. The chief coloration is fine chrome-yellow, especially 

 on the pectorals, spicules, and dorsal fins (PI. XVIII. fig. 10). The pectorals are even 

 larger, and the yellow pigment follows the line of the rays, with black points here and 

 there, the intermediate region being yellow and black. The spines generally are large, 

 those along the sides forming hispid rows, especially when looked at from the dorsum, 

 and extending from the pectorals to the tip of the tail. The other features, which are 

 chiefly those of the adult, have been indicated in a description published in the Fishery 

 Board's Eeport by one of us.* 



Callionymus lyra, L. — The ova of the skulpin, both ovarian and mature, have been 

 described in another place,t but they have not, as yet, been hatched. J By the aid of the 

 large mid-water net, a large series of young examples of this species, ranging from about 

 3 mm. to 10 mm. in length, were procured in August 1886. 



In the earliest stage (a little over 3 mm.) the body is characterised by the great size 

 of the head and abdomen, and the attenuation of the caudal region. The head 

 is very deep, and the projecting mandible passes upward at a marked angle. The 

 premaxillary region is not yet much developed, and the mouth has not the protrusible 

 character distinctive of the adult. The body rapidly tapers behind the abdomen, and 

 forms a slender, straight, almost whip-like continuation bordered by the membranous 

 larval fin, with its embryonic fin-rays. The head and body are speckled with brownish- 

 black pigment-corpuscles, which attain their greatest development on the ventral surface 

 of the abdomen — a part usually pale in fishes. The pectorals are small, and no ventral 

 fin seems to have been developed. The armature of the operculum, so characteristic of 

 the more fully developed stage, is as yet absent. The stomach at this stage contained 

 fragments of minute Crustaceans, apparently Copepods. 



In the next stage, though the total length little exceeds the foregoing, consider- 

 able progress has been made. A larger amount of pigment exists on the side of the 

 body, especially behind the abdomen, and it extends, though sparsely, on the hyoidean 

 surface in front. The premaxillary region is now slightly protrusible. The eyes are 

 large and somewhat quadrilobate. The abdomen still projects prominently below ; 

 but posteriorly the body has much increased in thickness, and the slender tip of 

 the notochord, instead of being free, now forms the upper region of the caudal fin, the 

 long inferior cartilaginous fin-rays stretching beyond it. The embryonic fin-rays extend 

 from the notochord both dorsally and ventrally, and also at the tip. The hypural region 

 is thickened, and the epiural is marked by a small patch. Speckled pigment runs along 

 the base of the ventral marginal fin. The pectorals are somewhat longer than in the 



* Ann. Report for 1888, p. 267. 



+ Ann. Nat. Hist., Dec. 1885. 



+ Raffaele thinks that the reticulated condition of these ova (see p. 15) was due to immaturity — that is, that such 

 represented the follicular layer of the ovarian egg, since in the ripe ova of G. festivus they were not present. Mr J. T. 

 Cunningham, however, has recently met with a pelagic egg, off Millport, in June, agreeing quite with our former 

 description, which was taken from mature eggs (vide, op. cit., p. 124). 



[Since this paper was read Mr Cunningham again confirms the original observation of one of us in 1885. — Jour. 

 Mar. Biol. Assoc, N.S. i. p. 37.] 



