The Scottish Naturalist. 57 



much material he had collected while he was pastor of Bressay. 

 The Rev. and venerable Patrick Barclay, while residing in. his 

 latter days at Elgin, was wont to tell that he knew Fleming well, 

 that his brethren used to joke him as being a great robber of 

 mantelpieces, the usual receptacle of curiosities, from which they 

 were ever glad to see Fleming take, per fas et nefas, whatever he 

 coveted. Mr Barclay said that he recollected one occasion on 

 which, while he was with Fleming on the sea-shore, the eye of the 

 young naturalist detected a prize among the newly cast up marine 

 rejectamenta; that he seized it as a hawk does his prey, and 

 became so excited, dancing and crying out " Eureka ! Eureka ! ! " 

 that his companion thought he was going demented. May it 

 not have been the long unique British specimen of Phronima 

 sedentaria that Dr Fleming then and there picked up ? In 

 'The British Sessile -eyed Crustacea,' at p. 26, vol. ii., it is 

 said : " The only specimen of this species which we have seen 

 as a native of the British coast is one in the British Museum, 

 taken by Dr Fleming on the 3d November 1809, at Burray, in 

 Zetland, amongst rejectamenta of the sea. This specimen, unfor- 

 tunately, is in a very dilapidated condition." Now, Burray is on 

 the west side of the Mainland of Shetland, and not far from 

 Sandsting, where Mr Barclay was minister. Be this as it may, 

 the only other notice we know of British Phronima sedentaria, 

 is when some specimens, also from Shetland, were exhibited by 

 Dr Johnston, before the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club. Spence 

 Bate was obliged to have recourse to foreign specimens and 

 plates, in order to illustrate the species. 



Other species of this division (Hyperina) show a strong attach- 

 ment to, or are parasites upon, Medusae ; but we question if any 

 of them have selected such an elegant abode as that in which 

 Phronima sedefitaria has ensconced itself. Its chosen Beroe 

 looks like a fairy's crystal palace, little larger than a lady's silver 

 thimble, open at both ends. Surely, as shown by what is now 

 to be stated of Mr Robertson's experience, no objects, in beauty 

 or interest, can be more suited for study and admiration in the 

 aquarium than Phronima and its Beroe. But, alas ! the cap- 

 tures of them have been few and far between ; for it is probable 

 that the present now to be noticed is but the third occasion on 

 record of these treasures of the deep having been got on the 

 British shores, or rather on these of Shetland, as Ultima Thule 

 alone, as yet, holds the honour of yielding this, as it does many 

 another rarity dear to the naturalist. 



