70 The h-'ish Naturalist, April, 



to a tough, shapeless knob. Replacing the apparently dead 

 animal in its tube, and giving it some fresh sea-water, I left 

 it there to the operation of the vis medicatjix natures. When 

 I returned in about an hour's time, I was astonished to find 

 the animal extended to full length, and creeping up the side 

 of the tube by means of its sucker-feet. All its tentacles 

 were displayed, and in graceful rhythmical motion, and the 

 creature had evidently entered once more upon the inscrutable 

 joys and sorrows of Holothurian existence. 



On the sixth day of its captivity the animal was observed 

 to be greatly swollen in its upper part, which had grown 

 quite pellucid. This change, which I interpreted as a sign of 

 approaching dissolution, w^as in reality but a prelude to self- 

 evisceration, that curious facult}^ or infirmit}^ which many of 

 the Holothurians are well known to possess or be liable to ; 

 for within an hour's time the intestines of the animal were 

 observed to protrude from its upper extremity near the base 

 of the tentacles, their owner remaining all the time in a lively 

 state. All next day the animal remained alive, with the ten- 

 tacles in feeble action. On the ist August it was still alive 

 with the tentacles fully extended but inert ; and, finallj^, on 

 the morning of the 2nd August, it died and was placed in 

 spirit. Throughout these last two days the extruded viscera 

 remained attached to the animal, but at one point onl}- . 



A second specimen of this species almost precisel}^ the same 

 in colour and size with that just described was taken by me 

 under rocks at low water, on Shennick's Island in Jul}' 1907. 



CucuMARiA LACTEA (Forbes and Goodsir). 



Ocniis lacteus and Ocmis brji^uiais, Forbes. 



On the nth August, 1906, when dredging in Dalkey Sound, 

 close by the shore of the island, in about 5 fathoms, the dredge, 

 as often happens in the Sound, came up quite filled with 

 Ophiocoma granulata (Forbes), the individuals ranging in 

 colour from cinnamon brown to velvety black. The haul of 

 fully half a hundred weight of " creepers" was spread out on 

 a tarpaulin in the stern sheets of the boat, and while glancing 

 over the writhing mass a spra}' of zoophyte with shapeless 

 brown blobs attached to it caught my eye. The spray was 

 transferred to a jar of sea water where half an hour later some 

 of the brown blobs were found expanded into unmistakable 



