of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



229 



front of the rectum and passing towards the liver, the mandibular, and 

 the eub-notochordal aorta which can be traced backward to the inferior 

 line of pigment behind the posterior brown bars. 



The yolk having now disappeared, the turbot may be considered as 

 having attained their early post-larval condition, and they swim through- 

 out the water by rapid strokes of the tail and vibrations of the pectorals. 

 In still water they often remain suspended with the head downward, but 

 there can be little doubt that, like the plaice observed by Mr H. Danne- 

 vig, they would luxuriate — with their heads directed to the current — in 

 the fresh streams of water either in the open sea or in the apparatus at 

 Dunbar. The body is dull reddish (more or less ruby-red) by trans- 

 mitted light, but by reflected light it has a dull ochreous or pale brownish 

 hue (Plate VIII. fig. 14), and finely marked with black. The outer mar- 

 gins of the two dorsal patches are paler, and the pigment immediately 

 behind the prominent posterior bars is also pale, these lighter touches 

 being very conspicuous during the vigorous movements of the animals. 

 The abdomen is deeply pigmented with black all over. The head and 

 anterior region are conspicuous — both from the great depth at the 

 opercular region and the development of pigment on the abdomen, 

 so that the general aspect is tadpole-like. The eyes are greenish-silvery. 

 The pectorals are large and fan-shaped, with reddish and black pigment 

 at the base, the latter extending outward into the fin as long branching 

 lines, which resemble very much the ramifications of rivers in a map. 

 The angles of the mandible project prominently downward — as it were 

 enclosing the anterior hyoidean region in a deep furrow. The vent now 

 gives passage to minutely granular matter. 



Besides the movements above noted, the little turbot occasionally 

 swim at the surface on the side — skimming along with rapidity and with 

 active motion of the hyoidean region. They are extremely quick in 

 noticing the movements of the minute crustaceans and other forms in the 

 vessel, and seem to dart at them for the sake of food. No form hitherto 

 observed at St Andrews appeared to be more hardy, or to undergo the 

 vicissitudes of temperature and manipulation with greater impunity. 

 There are grounds, therefore, for expressing the hope that they may yet 

 be reared in great numbers from the post-larval to the adolescent and 

 adult conditions in suitable enclosures. 



3. On a Larval Pleuronectid (Dab 1) with a Deep Body. 



A larval flounder (Plate VIII., fig. 15), with a peculiarly deep body, a 

 remarkably narrowed tail, a broad pre-anal fin, and an ovoid mass of yolk, 

 with a finely reticulated series of chromatophores over it, was procured 

 in the bottom net, about a mile beyond the pier, on June 29, 1895. 



Under a lens the eyes are whitish, and the top of the head, the 

 margin of the body, alimentary canal, and the edges of the marginal fin 

 are all tinted of a dull whitish, most of the slender tail-region being 

 transparent — a single opaque white speck occurring at the end of the 

 notochord, near the tip of the tail. The gut goes backwards for some 

 distance behind the yolk, bends down, and comes to the margin of the 

 fin. The whitish parts by transmitted light show much ramified 

 chromatophores in the various areas. The yolk-sac is finely reticu- 

 lated with these — ventrally and laterally ; and black dots are also 

 present over the same region, the head and the tail. These have 

 not yet ramified. The yolk is slightly granular. The white spot near 

 the tip of the tail is due to the same ramified white chromatophores, 

 and there are also branched black corpuscles at the body line, dorsally 

 Q 



