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2-1/2 in., while the perfectly-formed young eel is 2 in. long or a little more. The Italian naturalists have also satisfied themselves that certain pelagic fish eggs originally described by Raffaele at Naples are the eggs of _Muraenidae_, and that among them are the eggs of _Conger_ and _Anguilla_. They believe that these eggs, although free in the water, remain usually near the bottom at great depths, and that fertilization takes place under similar conditions. No fish eggs of the kind to which reference is here made have yet been obtained on the British coasts, although conger and eels are so abundant there. Raffaele described and figured the larva newly hatched from one of the eggs under consideration, and it is evident that this larva is the earliest stage of a Leptocephalus. Although young eels, some of them more or less flat and transparent, are common enough on the coasts of Great Britain and north-western Europe in spring, neither eggs nor specimens of _Leptocephalus brevirostris_ have yet been taken in the North Sea, English Channel or other shallow waters in the neighbourhood of the British Islands, or in the Baltic. Marked eels have been proved to migrate from the inmost part of the Baltic to the Kattegat. Recently, however, search has been made for the larvae in the more distant and deeper portions of the Atlantic Ocean. In May 1904 a true larval specimen was taken at the surface south-west of the Faeroe Islands, and another was taken 40 m. north by west of Achill Head, Ireland. In 1905 numbers were taken in deep water in the Atlantic. The evidence at present available indicates that the spawning of mature eels takes place beyond the 100 fathom line, and that the young eels which reach the coast are already a year old. As eels, both young and old, are able to live for a long time out of water and have the habit of travelling at night over land in wet grass and in damp weather, there is no difficulty in explaining their presence in wells, ponds or other isolated bodies of fresh water at any distance from the sea. See "The Eel Question," _Report U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries for 1879_ (Washington, 1882); J. T. Cunningham, "Reproduction and Development of the Conger," _Journ. Mar. Biol. Assn._ vol. ii.; C. G. J. Petersen, _Report Dan. Biol. Station_, v. (1894); G. B. Grassi, _Quart. Journ. Mic. Sci._ vol. xxxix. (1897). (J. T. C.) EFFENDI (a Turkish word, corrupted from the Gr. [Gree
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