These notes are intended to be explanatory of the record of tow-net stages of Teleosteans kept by Mr. S. D. Scott and myself. Although my own name appears alone under the title, it must be understood that the observations were in the sole charge of Mr. Scott until the beginning of March. The record of the 5th April is also Mr. Scott's. The rest were kept by myself. The credit of any scientific result that may accrue from the observations previous to the 30th March belongs therefore solely to Mr. Scott, since his notes and figures are so complete as to render my own share of this part of the work a very simple one.

This journal is not designed for the publication of such profusely illustrated papers as are best suited for the explanation of the earliest stages of Teleosteans. It so happens that in the present instance I am able in most cases to refer either to figures already published, or to others now in the press. A series of notes made at Professor Marion's laboratory at Endoûme, Marseilles, was prepared for the press during 1897. Observations made at Plymouth during the same period were found to have an obvious bearing on the subject-matter of my researches at Marseilles, and by the generous permission of Professor Marion I have been allowed to include in a paper shortly to be published in the Annales du Musée de Marseille a number of drawings made from Playmouth specimens. I am therefore able in many instances to eke out somewhat inadequate descriptions by references to figures in the Annales.

During my stay, from August to October, 1897, at the Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, I was especially engaged in investigating the variability of Pleuronectes flesus, Linn., and Siphonostoma typhle, Linn. Of the results so obtained, some of more local faunistic importance are briefly reported here.

I have made several attempts to keep medusae alive in an aquarium, but have only recently been successful. A medusae when first placed in an aquarium swims actively about, but in a few hours it sinks to the bottom apparently tired out. After an interval of rest it takes another swim and again sinks to the bottom. This is repeated until the medusa becomes completely exhausted; then it stays at the bottom and slowly dies. In spite of every attention, plenty of clean sea-water, plenty of copepods, and a suitable temperature, I found that my medusae often used to die within a day of their capture.

When I have been watching medusae at the surface of the sea, I have noticed that they simply float along with the tide without often pulsating the umberlla. In my bell-jars the water was perfectly motionless, so that a medusa had to pulsate its umbrella in order to keep afloat, and as soon as the pulsations stopped it began to sink. There are some species, like those belonging to the Bougainvillidae, which live longer in confinement, as they are able to poise themselves in the water by the extension of their tentacles and remain motionless for long periods, but even these finally reach the bottom of the bell-jar, and a long period at the bottom ends in death.

It appeared to me that to keep medusae alive in an aquarium it was necessary to have the water in motion so that a medusae could float about just as it does in the sea, without having constantly to pulsate its umbrella.

For a number of years our tanks have from time to time contained a very large and easily-recognised Skate-purse, but its specific identity has remained a matter of uncertainty. Fishermen attributed it to the “Bottle-nose ray”, a species not to be found, so far as I am aware, in ichthyological works.

“It may interest you to know that on Friday, 14th January, the weather being very fine, and the wind from the S.E., as the fishing-boat Sea Belle (Mr. Blamey, master), was proceeding to the pilchard ground some four or five miles south of the Deadman headland, when about two miles from land they fell in with masses of muddy brown matter in strings, some of which were three or four hundred yards long and form two to seven feet wide, floating quite on the surface. They had not proceeded far along these lanes or path-like forms on the sea before they observed that pilchards were feeding on them ravenously; so they tacked their boat among them for a mile or more, and the further they went the more abundant were the pilchards. About four miles from land and in thirty fathoms of water the anxious gulls indicated the outmost limit of these strangely coloured bands, and here the pilchards were the most plentiful, almost rabid in their mad rush on the lessening streaks, causing the water to boil and whirl violently. Certainly some of the shoals of pilchards could not have had less than thirty to sixty thousand fish in them, for they coloured the water a dark red when concentrated on the brown matter.

“Of course our fisherman expected a more than ordinary catch of pilchards when setting their nets; but, strange to tell, with the decline of the light, having fed to repletion, they sank down below the nets, and the catch was a small one, amounting to some two or three thousand fish.

In the Journal of this Association for 1896 (Vol. IV., No. 2, p. 168) I published a few notes on the Pelagic Fauna of Plymouth for September, 1893 and 1895. This year (1897) I again occupied a table in the Laboratory during September for the study of medusae, and alos made a few entries in my notebook on the occurence of certain animals belonging to other groups, and kept a special look-out for the animals which I noted in previous years. Unfortunately I was not able to visit Plymouth during September in 1894 and 1896, consequently the record is broken by two blank years, and spoilt for an accurate comparison of one year with another, but it shows that more Atlantic forms were present in 1895 than in 1893 or 1897.

The common wrasse of our coasts is well known to exhibit, as a species, an almost endless variation of colour. To what extent the different colour-patterns are individual or congenital, and to what extent they may be produced in the same individual by different stimuli, appears to be a question worthy of careful examination. We propose at present to deal chiefly with the observation of a single specimen.

I. Introduction.

Some eighteen months ago the Director of the Plymouth Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association decided to carry out a series of investigations concerning the surface currents of the English Channel at different seasons of the year, and for a series of years, by means of properly devised floating bodies which would attract attention when standed on the shore, and the recovery of which could without difficulty be recorded. At the commencement of the investigation Mr. Allen communicated his scheme to the editors of the west-country Press, and these gentlemen kindly gave publicity to the plan, the success of which depended very largely upon the co-operation of residents and visitors frequenting the sea-shore. Mr. Allen's letter expresses so clearly the object and method of the investigation, that I cannot do better than reproduce it here:—

The various researches detailed in my last Report, which are being conducted by the Association's Naturalists, have been continued during the winter. Mr. Garstang has been chiefly occupied in investigations relating to the migratory pelagic fishes, giving special attention to the characteristics of mackerel from different localities, some 1500 of these fish having been subjected to detailed examination in the course of this enquiry. The samples of mackerel have been obtained from the south-west of Ireland (through H.M. Inspectors of Irish Fisheries), from the North Sea and from America, in addition to those captured near Plymouth. As the results so far obtained refer only to the autumn fish, it has been thought better to defer their publication until after the coming spring fishery, when further samples from the same localities, as well as from the Mediterranean and from Norway, will be examined.

Mr. Garstang has also given much time to working out the results of the drift-bottle experiments, a report of which for the year 1897 will be found at p. 199. These experiments have proved more interesting and successful than we had anticipated when they were undertaken, and we purpose continuing and extending them during the coming year.

Mr. Holt's papers in the present number of the Journal represent but a portion of the many observations which he has been able to make during the year on the eggs and larvæ of fishes. He has also given much attention to the question of the distribution of fish at different ages in this neighbourhood.