LANCELET. 



able through the external covcrino-. It was taken home by 



o o 



Mr. Couch, who made a drawing of its appearance under a 

 microscope. 



The only notice of this little animal on record that I have 

 become acquainted with, which was pointed out to me by my 

 friend Mr. I. E. Gray, is that by Pallas, in his Spicilegia 

 Zoologica, already quoted ; and I insert at the foot of the 

 page, as a note, the Latin description by Pallas,* believing 

 that the reader will then have before him all that has been 

 published of this very rare little animal, of which, at least 

 as far as I am aware, possibly no other specimen has been 

 found or noticed since that to which Pallas refers, and 

 which, it is not a little singular, was also obtained from 

 Cornwall. 



Of the specimen in his possession Pallas says, " Quod 

 nunquam vivum vidi, sed liquore servatum e mari Cornubiam 

 adluente accepi olim, quoclque prima facie refert piscem 

 Leptoccphalum Gronovii." 



At first sight this little fish has somewhat the appearance 

 of a Leptocephalus, a British fish first sent to Gronovius 

 by our countryman and zoologist Pennant ; it more par- 

 ticularly resembles it in the arrangement of the strise on 

 the flattened sides : but Leptocephalus, as will appear by 

 a reference to the figure of it in this volume at page 409, 

 has a perfect head, though a small one, with jaws, teeth, 

 eyes, and gill-covers ; while the fish under consideration has 

 neither eyes nor gill-covers, nor any fins except one along 

 the back, which forms an anal fin by passing round the tail. 



* " 



Limax lanceolatus. Corpus anceps, planum, linear! lanceolatum, utrin- 

 que acutissimum. Margo undique limbo membranaceo auctus ; subtus vero ad 

 duas tertias longitudinis margo bilabiatus est, sulcatusque, ut sit quasi pes 

 liraacinus angustissimus. Tentacula plane nulla. Latera striis obsoletis, 

 antrorsum obliquatis prope dorsura angulo recurvatis, ut quasi latus pisciculi 

 desquamatum refeiant." 



