THE society's NOTE-BOOKS. 121 



slowly that it can be very easily captured. They vary much in 

 size. I have two specimens in my cabinet in which the contrast 

 is so great that the horns of one are as long as the whole of the 

 other, body and horns together. The large one is certainly the 

 largest I ever saw. From personal observation, and from the 

 condition of some I have caught, I have come to the conclusion 

 that these beetles fight, and that, too, seriously ; I once found one 

 with an old wound in his elytron, exactly corresponding to the tip 

 of a horn, or, rather, to such a hole as the horn would make, and 

 another had lost half a horn, although I can scarcely think that it 

 could have been broken off by another beetle. As regards their 

 powers of biting, it has often been stated that they will not and 

 cannot bite, but having myself had very convincing proof to the 

 contrary, I can safely assert that they both can and do bite. I was 

 once bitten quite through the fleshy part of the middle finger of 

 my right hand by one, and did not quickly forget it. 



Edward Lovett. 



Amphiocus lanceolatus (tr. sec.) from the Coast of Norway. 

 There is a short description, with figure of this fish, in Gosse's 

 " Marine Zoology of Great Britain.'^ He classes it in the Order 

 Cyclostornata of the Cartilaginous Fishes, and gives the generic 

 characters as follows : — " Skeleton rudimentary, spine an unjointed 

 column of cartilage ; no ribs ; no pectoral or ventral fins ; mouth 

 a sucking disc, surrounded by a ring of cartilage." Of A. 

 la?iceolatus, the only known species, he further gives the characters 

 as : — " Body compressed, doubly pointed ; mouth a long slit, 

 with a row of filaments on each side ; dorsal fin along the whole 

 length of the back." The average length is only from one to two 

 or two and a half inches. It is found, though rarely, on the 

 British coasts ; usually lurking under stones in pools left by the 

 ebbing tide. Its true position has been much debated ; it was 

 once looked on as a mollusc, but Yarrell, Agassiz, and others, 

 consider that the most recent information leaves no doubt as to 

 its claim to be regarded as a fish ; its peculiarities of organism, 

 however, separate it from most other members of its class. The 

 nervous system consists almost solely of a spinal cord, inclosed in 

 a fibrous sheath, with scarce any traces of a brain or of other 

 organs of sense. The blood is colourless, like that of Inverte- 

 bratte ; and instead of being propelled through a single heart, we 

 find numerous bulb-like enlargements scattered over the system 

 of blood-vessels. The mode of respiration, too, is altogether 

 abnormal. The alimentary canal is lined with cilia, and there is 

 no distinct trace of a Uver. In all these points the " Lancelet " 



