Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt:...back is a golden yellow line running along the basis of the dorsal fin, and presenting a more or less distinct interruption in the occipital region in front of the fin at the spot where there is a minute golden speculum in "lula." Besides all this, the" madaya" fry present a clear yellow spot on the snout and do not possess the black basis of the anal fin. The postlarval stage of ' lula " is thus easily distinguishable from the postlarval "madaya." Moreover, at this stage the median fins have completed their differentiation from the embryonic matrix. "Lula " and" madaya" fry of 17 mm. exhibit the following differences in respect of their median fin-rays and lateral bands:--' Lula".. D 47, A 30, Lat. band 1 20 mm. wide. "Madaya ".. i) 30, A 20, Lat. band 60 mm. wide. A. Willey. Fishery observations. Spol. Zeyl.. V.. 1908, p. 145 et stq. I take this opportunity of correcting the name of a protozoon referred to in this note as Blepharisma. It should have been Loxodea. General Considerations. So far as I am aware no other instances of eggs of freshwater fishes floating at the surface of the water hy their own buoyancy have been described liitherto. The same advantages, namely, direct proximity to atmospheric air and to sunlight, are partly secured in other ways, as by attachment to aquatic plants or by deposition in very shallow water. The floating eggs of Ophiocephalus striatus, with their accompaniment of small fragments detached from the surrounding plants, such as cut pieces of tank weed, leaves, and lengths of cut stent, rather invite comparison with the floating nests of Gymnarchus which were described by the late J. S. Budgett. He found these nests amidst the dense grasses of a West Af...