of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



275 



the month, though they were also numerous at other times. The eggs of 

 the sole were also not uncommon. 



The ova of the dab are also frequently found in the beginning of May, 

 as well as throughout the previous month, and Captain Burn forwarded 

 many ripe ova of the lemon dab from the Moray Frith at the former period. 



Other ova, measuring -051, "067, and "07, were also procured. In the 

 bottom-net especially the ova of the sprat were very common. 



A few of Motella (*039) likewise occasionally occurred, and a larva from 

 an egg on the 16th May was reared to Brook's fig. 9, pi. ix.* on 27th May. 



The post-larval food-fishes become a marked feature of the pelagic 

 fauna in May, and hitherto they have to a great extent been procured in 

 the mid-water net. Almost daily the young gadoids made their appear- 

 ance — ranging in size from \ to J of an inch, the smallest with the 

 embryonic fin-rays for the most part, though the permanent were 

 indicated (Plate IV. figs. 5, 6). On looking over an orderly series of these, 

 eight in number ranging from a little over \ inch to |- inch, each seems to run 

 into the other, and to show the features of a single form. Some, from their 

 deeper greenish hue on the 11th and 16th, were supposed to resemble 

 Gadus virens (the green cod or saithe), but there was nothing reliable in 

 the diagnosis. Many of the larger and even some of the smaller forms had 

 parasitic young Caligi (Uhalimi)* The foregoing gadoids gradually merged 

 into unmistakable young cod, ^g- and 1— inch long (31st May), in which 

 all the characters of the species could be recognised. At the beginning of 

 May the average size of any given series in the mid-water net was smaller 

 than towards the end of the month. On the whole, the sizes of the 

 gadoids observed during the month would countenance the view that 

 they were produced from ova of the season. Considerable latitude is 

 evidently necessary in regard to the spawning-period, some being earlier 

 than others, and in each individual the process, as elsewhere explained, is 

 one of some duration. 



Pleuronectids were represented in the mid-water net by the young 

 flounders and plaice, ranging from f to -f of an inch. These were of a 

 considerably advanced stage. The most elongated ( T 7 F long and -J broad) 

 of these appeared to be plaice, though at present uncertainty exists on 

 this point. The shorter and firmer forms probably pertain to the 

 common flounder and dab, though the young of the long rough dab 

 appear to be somewhat similar. 



Young Clupeoids, § inch to \ inch, appeared several times, but in former 

 years they were much more common. They may have kept the lower 

 parts of the water, and thus avoided capture, since they were probably 

 plentiful somewhere within the limits, unless we are to suppose that the 

 swarms of larvae, so characteristic of the previous month, had altogether 

 vanished from the Bay. 



Post-larval sand-eels about J of an inch were not uncommon. 



During May, besides the food-fishes, the Bay abounds with larval and 

 post-larval examples of Cotii, Cyclopteri, Agoni, Montagu's sucker, and 

 other forms, though, with the exception of the two last, these do not 

 frequently occur in the mid-water or other net. In all probability, the 

 Cotti and Cyelopteri (as observation shows), are only occasionally pelagic 

 in the sense of leaving the neighbourhood of the rocks, borne on floating 

 sea-weeds or otherwise. There is nothing in the life-history of either, 

 however, at variance with a pelagic stage in their early youth. The 

 voracity of the young Cyelopteri makes them undesirable associates of 

 the delicate young food-fishes, and the same may be said of the Cotti. 



* Joum. Linn. Soc. Zool., xviii. 



