In my paper on the Reproduction of Fishes occurring at Plymouth, published in this Journal, vol. i, p. 10, 1889, I identified as the egg of the pilchard, a pelagic egg commonly found in the tow-net in summer, and distinguished by three obvious characters, namely: (1) an unusually large perivitelline space; (2) a single large oil-globule in the vitellus; (3) a completely subdivided yolk. I also stated that ripe spawning pilchards occurred off Plymouth between June and October, but always at some distance from land, being usually taken in mackerel nets worked to the south of the Eddystone. My identification of the egg, taken in the sea, was founded upon a comparison between it and the eggs pressed from the ripe but dead female pilchards obtained from mackerel fishermen. The latter eggs were already dead, and did not float, but sank in sea water, but they possessed a single oil-globule, and the yolk in them consisted of a number of yolk-spheres. The large perivitelline space was absent, because it is only formed when living eggs are extruded into sea water.

Raffaele had previously described two kinds of pelagic eggs found at Naples, which he recognised, from their divided yolk and the characters of the larvæ hatched from them, as belonging to some species of Clupeoid. The larger of these eggs he attributed to Clupea pilchardus, but did not give his reasons. This egg is in all respects similar to that identified as belonging to the pilchard by myself at Plymouth. It is well known that the sardine of the French coast and of the Mediterranean is the same species of fish as the pilchard of Devon and Cornwall.