326 
Part III. — Ninth Annual R&port 
greater weever, measuring only ^ of an inch in length, and captured with 
a drift-net in August. The opercular spine was not yet nouch developed, 
and the same may be said of those at the anterior superior angles of the 
orbit. Pigment occurred on the head and anterior portions of the body, 
diminishing towards the posterior region, which was translucent. ' The 
' lower half of the pectoral lins have colour, but the upper portion devoid 
* of it. Two or three rays on the inner portion of the ventral fins are 
' black.' 
Eggs of the lesser weever occur in St Andrews Bay in April, May, and 
June, and last year Mr Holt procured one in July, so that, as usual, the 
spawning period is somewhat extended. Mr Holt found them in con- 
siderable numbers at the surface in the western bays of Ireland in June 
and July, and gives good descriptions and drawings up to the early 
post-larval stage. * 
9. On the Young Stages op the Gunnel (Centronotus gunneUus, L.). 
In the Researches^ the young gunnel was followed from the egg up to 
the fifth week. Moreover, in the Annals of Natural History for August 
1890, an older stage, measuring 35*5 mm., was described. In the tow- 
nets during April an intermediate stage (17 mm. in length), which may 
readily at first sight be confounded with the sand-eel, is not uncommon. 
It is a translucent young fish, somewhat deeper in the body than the sand- 
eel, though it resembles it in regard to the lustrous green of the eyes when 
seen from the dorsum, and their silvery aspect in lateral view. Vent- 
rally, a line of black chromatophores commences at the two black spots 
between the pectorals and runs to the anus, whence, as in the younger 
forms, it is continued to the tail. One or two black pigment-specks occur 
on the throat in front of the pectorals. The caudal has indications of 
about eleven true rays inferior ly, besides embryonic rays superiorly and 
inferiorly. Three hypurals are evident. The clavicle is a well-developed 
rod, and the branchiae present a series of short, simple papillae. The marginal 
fin has embryonic rays, both dorsally and ventrally, toward the caudal 
region ; and, indeed, they can be traced as faintly-marked lines far forward. 
The pectorals show traces of rays. The mandible moves slightly, and has 
still the downward projection seen in the oldest stages figured in the 
Researches.^ The muscular gullet shows only a median slit, then the 
stomach, which extends to the posterior border of the liver, is marked 
by longitudinal rugae, after which a more irregularly rugose region 
follows ; but by and by posteriorly the rugae become regularly transverse 
as far as the rectal region, where again the rugae are somewhat irregular. 
A constriction indicates the commencement of the rectum. The intestine 
was dull yellowish, and contained masses — apparently of the long bristles 
of the larvae of Nerine — so abundant in the bottom water at this period. 
As the gunnel increases in age the body becomes deeper, soft rays 
appear in the dorsal and anal fins, a double row (closely-approximated 
pairs) of black pigment-specks is found at the base of the anal fin, and 
the single row on the abdomen diminishes in length. At 20 mm. the 
minute ventrals are visible. The post-larval condition of the head seems 
only to disappear when the ventral pigment vanishes anteriorly, and the 
spines of the fins become rigid. 
* Trans. Roy. Dub. Soc. , vol. iv, , ser. ii. , pis. xlvii. xlviii. xlix. and 1. 
t Trans. Boy. Soc. Edin., p. 869. 
X PI. xiii. fig. 7. 
