of the, Fishery Board for Scotland. 
287 
have been received from Dr Fulton since the foregoing paragraphs have 
been in type. They are the largest and perhaps the most beautiful of all 
the pelagic ova (Plate XVI. fig. 13). Thus the dubiety enshrouding the 
reproduction of this species is gradually disappearing. The eggs have a 
diameter ranging from 3 "4 290 to 3 7G 1 9 mm., and before being immersed 
in sea-water, resembled a slightly milky mass of young salpoe, or a quantity 
of boiled sago, their diameter, however, being considerably less, viz., from 
3-0480 to 3*2766 mm. Many had been ruptured, the fluid in the bottle 
being thus milky. 
The capsule is evidently thin, and before the imbibition of sea-water, it 
flapped to and fro with the movements of the fluid in which they were 
immersed. It subsequently, however, became tense, and exhibited slight 
elasticity, the eggs being easily lifted by a pair of fine forceps and trans- 
ferred from vessel to vessel. If the egg happened to fall an inch or two 
on a glass plate, immediate rupture ensued. Proportionally, therefore, 
the capsule is the thinnest yet met with in the group. As in other cases, 
sea-water readily penetrates and distends the capsule. The latter is 
marked by a series of fine creases or folds, which have a somewhat coursed 
or even stellate arrangement, like those of the lemon dab or brill — an 
arrangement best seen in the egg before distension, though it is also 
visible in the tumid egg (PI. XVI. fig. 22). The minute punctures occur 
all over the surface. The folded edge of the capsule, in a ruptured speci- 
men, is marked by closely-arranged striae — an appearance often seen in 
shrivelled eggs of other species. 
Careful search of the surface of these specimens showed only a simple 
micropylar orifice (PI. XVI. figs. 11 and 12). It had a slightly pinkish hue 
(like the large pores in the capsule of the torsk), probably from refraction. 
No special arrangement of lines or pores surrounded the orifice. 
As Mr Holt mentioned, no trace of an oil-globule is present, the yolk 
being apparently quite transparent and homogenous. In the present 
instance, the whitened (dead) protoplasm occupied one side, leaving the 
rest of the egg more or less transparent. 
5. On the Eggs of the Green Cod (or Saithe). 
Notwithstanding the abundance of this species on the coasts of Scot- 
land, ripe specimens have up to this period escaped us. Recently spawned 
examples, it is true, have more than once been picked up on the beach 
early in the year (March), but none with mature ova. 
Parnell * observes that the spawn is deposited in the early part of the 
spring, and the fry are seen in June, about 2 inches in length. Couch 
gives the same spawning season, and mentions that the young are caught 
off the rocks in Scotland. Day writes that in Cornwall they spawn in 
spring, and that in the Orkneys the young in June reach 1J inches, and 
in August from 3 to 5 inches. Mobius and Heincke mention that, 
according to Kroyer, the species spawns in spring. Brook extends the 
spawning period from December (Wick) to April (Berwick), most of the 
entries by the Fishery officers being in March. Fulton f procured a 
tolerably ripe female on the 11th March, the large clear eggs being from 
0-9 to 1-8 mm. 
By the courtesy of the Fishery Board, and the exertions of Dr Fulton, 
a few unfertilised eggs of this species were forwarded in sea-water from 
Shetland, having been procured by Mr Robert Duthie, the Assistant 
Fishery Officer, on the 9th of April 1892. Unfortunately, they had 
decayed, the ruptured capsule in many alone remaining. A few, how- 
ever, were still fairly rotund, and these had a diameter of 1*1430 mm., 
* Fishes of the Forth, p. 347. 
t Ninth Annual Report Scottish F-ishenj Board, p. 258. 
