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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LIV 



young, remaining within a few feet of them even when dis- 

 turbed. The eggs are cemented to the roof overlying a shallow 

 crevice in the rocks or a space beneath a flat boulder. They 

 somewhat suggest the familiar egg of the Pacific salmon in color, 

 and vary in the larger diameter from 4.0 to 6.0 mm. They are 

 slightly compressed, as though by pressure against the rock, and 

 are broadly elliptical in outline. 



The young hatch out during the summer. Jordan and Starks 

 (1895, p. 840), in discussing the species as found in Puget 

 Sound, remark "the young fasten themselves to the rocks by 

 means of a ventral disc which soon disappears. ' ' They mention 

 further that "the adult remains with the young until they are 

 quite well matured." On October 25 the writer found a single 

 grunting male under a large flat stone in a pool about two feet 

 square, with numerous young all about 26 mm. long. Other 

 young, 22 to 28 mm. long, were caught in a larger pool on Octo- 

 ber 26. None has been obtained on the reefs in the winter or 

 spring; young as small as 23 mm. have been taken by the Scripps 

 Institution for Biological Research, at La Jolla in depths as 

 great as forty fathoms. Except for their proximity to the eggs, 

 the males show no special habits which might be construed as 

 definitely protective. 



Porichthys is one of three genera of phosphorescent shore- 

 fishes, the other two being Anomalops and Photoblepharon of 

 the East Indian reefs. In each of these East Indian fishes the 

 single large light-producing structure is located below the eye 

 (Steehe, 1909), while in Porichthys a large number of photo- 

 phores (in P. notatus Greene found an average of about 700) 

 are developed in connection with the several lateral lines (except 

 the uppermost, which is only rarely accompanied by a few rudi- 

 mentary light organs), one photophore being opposite each pore. 

 The photophores are most abundantly developed on the ventral 

 surface, and all are oriented downward. The same condition 

 holds true in the several other diverse groups of fishes, mostly 

 pelagic or bathypelagic, in which the power to emit light has 

 obviously been independently acquired, as well as in certain 

 other phosphorescent animals, such as the bathybial cephalopods. 

 This general downward cast of the light of luminescent marine 

 animals, a point regarded by the writer as of critical significance, 

 has apparently not been duly considered by any of the authors 

 who have proposed such varied theories to explain the biological 

 significance of biophotogenesis. 



