[ viii ] 



the November inspection he has devoted some time to work amongst the fishermen on 

 the shores of Dutch Bay (between Colombo and the Pearl Banks) with the view of 

 obtaining for dissection some of the larger Elasmobranch fish caught by the natives. 

 In this he has been very successful, and recent letters inform me (l) that he has 

 now determined the Trygon-Rays which eat the oysters as being the " Walwadi 

 tirikkai " of the Tamils, Rhinoptera javanica, and the still larger " Mundakanni 

 tirikkai," Rhinoptera adspersa ; and (2) that amongst the Entozoa he obtained from 

 the former species was a Tetrarhynchid agreeing in the armature of its proboscides 

 with the larval Tetrarhynehus unioniformis from the Pearl oyster. As the result 

 of this work with the fishermen, Mr. Hornell has recently made a large and varied 

 collection of parasites which will be the subject of a final report by Mr. Shipley 

 and himself in Part IV. 



W. A. HERDMAN. 

 The University, Liverpool, 

 January, 1905. 



