MAORURA. SOU MITT. 379 



Remarks. To the varietal form of this species, xrmi- 

 Icevis, de Man assigns the "Challenger" material from 

 between the Philippines and Borneo, 250 fathoms, off 

 Sydney Harbour, Australia, 1,200 fathoms, off the Ker- 

 madec Islands, 520 fathoms, and off Matuka, Fiji Islands, 

 315 fathoms (Bate), as well as McCulloch's Sydney speci- 

 mens (mentioned under Distribution above). De Man 

 also cites this variety as occurring at Lion's Head, South 

 Africa (Stebbing), probably also in Sagami Bay, SOO 

 metres (Balss) ; and at the Hawaiian Islands (Rathbun; 

 also mentioned under Distribution above). 



An examination of the "Albatross" Hawaiian 

 material reported on by Dr. Mary J. Rathbun shows 

 it definitely to be the species proper. Measurements of 

 thirteen specimens with complete rostra give a variation 

 of rostral length to length of body (from orbit to end 

 of telson) of from fifty to sixty-six per cent. 



De Man's designation of McCulloch's Sydney 

 specimens as the varietal form may likewise be in error, 

 for McCulloch speaks of his specimens as "agreeing well 

 with Alcock's detailed description." Regarding the 

 species observed by Alcock, de Man remarked that whether 

 it belongs to the variety appears doubtful, because accord- 

 ing to the measurements mentioned by this author, the 

 rostrum should be as long as in the typical species. 



Furthermore, even though some of Bate's material 

 came from the same general locality as McCulloch's, off 

 Sydney, measurements of the only three of the twenty 

 specimens taken by the "Endeavour" that had complete 

 rostra a fourth had the rostrum entire except for the 

 extreme tip showed that these further specimens from 

 Australian waters off Gabo Island and elsewhere in the 

 Great Australian Bight are like the typical species. 



The rostra of these several specimens represented 

 more than fifty per cent, of the length of the body 

 measured from the back of the orbit to the end of the 

 telsou. In the variety semilaivis, according to de Man, 

 the rostrum is from thirty-four to forty-seven per cent, 

 the length of the body. 



It is not at all unlikely that Bate himself had both 

 forms represented in the material he worked over. For, 

 although a comparison with Milne Edwards' figure 

 showed the rostrum of the latter to be relatively longer, 



