of the South West of Scotland. 21 



irides are bright silver. I have elsewhere recorded a Lepto- 

 cephalus, which was taken on the opposite coast of Downshire. 

 (Zool. Proc. 1835, p. 82). 



Purple Ocean Shell. lanthina communis. A specimen 

 of this shell, kindly forwarded for my inspection, by Captain 

 Fayrer, in March, 1837, was one of about a dozen collected 

 some time before, on the shore of Wigtonshire, by Lady 

 Agnew, of Lochnaw Castle. About the 1st of August, 1836, 

 this species was abundant in the vicinity of the Giant's Cause- 

 way ; and on the 11th of this month, a few individuals were 

 found by Dr. J. L. Drummond and myself, on the beach near 

 Bangor, on the Down coast. I had never before known the 

 lanthina to be washed ashore in this county, but on the 

 northern parts of Antrim, it was long since observed. Those 

 obtained in Scotland were, in all probability, a portion of the 

 same fleet that had thus touched at certain parts of the coast 

 of Ireland. 



Sea Long-worm, (Borlase). Nemertes Borlasii, Cuv. — 

 About the same time that the Leptocephalus was obtained, 

 Capt. Fayrer got an individual of this species, holding on to 

 a bait, (the "buckie," Buccinum undatum, Linn.) on his long 

 line, when he was fishing for cod, off Portpatrick. Having 

 put it in spirits, diluted with an equal portion of water, Capt. 

 F. observes, " that the contortions of the poor animal were 

 really horrible." Montagu mentions, that one about 8 feet 

 long, which he " put alive into spirits, instantly contracted to 

 about 1 foot, at the same time increasing to double the bulk, 

 which originally was about the diameter of a crow-quill." — 

 Linn. Trans, vol. vii. p. 73. Judging from this, the present 

 specimen must have been very much larger, as in its present 

 contracted state, it is about 3 feet in length, and from 1 J- to 

 3J lines in diameter. Its colour is as described by the author 

 just quoted, " dusky brown, with a tinge of green, with five 

 [several] faint longitudinal lines, of a paler colour." A few 

 years ago, a specimen of the Nemertes about 12 feet in length, 

 was taken on the opposite coast of Ireland, near the entrance 

 of Strangford Lough, by my friend Mr. Hyndman, (Member 

 Nat. Hist. Soc. of Belfast) : in this instance it was found shel- 

 tered beneath a stone, at low water. This remarkable worm, 

 the only species of the genus, I believe, yet discovered, has 

 three generic appellations attached to it ; being the Lineus of 

 Sowerby, the Borlasia of Oken, and the Nemertes of Cuvier. 



Belfast, Nov. 2nd, 1837. 



c3 



