XIX.—On the Development and Life-Histories of the Teleostean Food- and other Fishes

Abstract

Until very recently existing information concerning the eggs and oviposition of British fishes, and more especially marine fishes, was of the most fragmentary character. In the standard works upon Ichthyology, such as Owen's Anatomy of Vertebrates (vol. i. Fishes), it is comprised in a few vague sentences; while the original papers published by British ichthyologists are not numerous, and refer, for the most part, to fresh-water species. Within the last few years, however, attention has been more systematically directed to the subject, and the enlightened views of the late Royal Commission on Trawling, and more especially of its chairman, the late Earl of Dalhousie, has given a fresh impetus to the study of the development and life-history of our food-fishes, as preliminary to a thorough investigation of their habits, food, so-called migrations, and general life-history.