218 The Irish Naturalist. July, 



FURTHER ADVANCES IN IRISH MARINE ZOOLOGY. 



BY R. F. SCHARFF, PH.D., F.I, S. 



In the September number of the Irish Naturalist, 1906, Prof. 

 Carpenter reviewed the work of the naturalists attached to the 

 Fisheries Branch of the Irish Department of Agriculture and 

 Technical Instruction under the heading of M Advances in 

 Irish Marine Zoology." Since he wrote his paper a good deal 

 of additional matter has been published on Irish marine 

 zoology. It has not all been the work of the naturalists attached 

 to the Department, but the greater part of the new papers 

 appear in the "Report on the Sea and Inland Fisheries of 

 Ireland for 1904 " (printed in 1906 and issued in February, 

 1907), which is published by the Department. The various 

 notes and essays may be grouped with advantage under 

 different headings. 



General Biology. — An important paper 1 , deals with the 

 plankton, the term now generally employed to designate 

 the more minute living organisms floating near the surface of 

 the sea. These may be either vegetable or animal organisms, 

 both adult and young. A special training is necessary to re- 

 cognise and classify the numerous larval forms, often of fan- 

 tastic shapes, which abound in the plankton, quite apart from 

 the many adult specimens with which the sea teems at certain 

 times. 



Dr. L. H. Gough, of Plymouth, describes the results of tow- 

 nettings taken regularly every fortnight in 1904 near some of 

 the Irish light-house stations. We are not told hy Dr. 

 Gough whether any of the numerous species of vegetable and 

 animal organisms he records are new to the Irish marine area, 

 for his purpose was merely to trace their dispersal from place 

 to place. This has a distinct bearing on fish migration. 



In another note, the Misses Delap describe 2 the plankton of 

 Valencia Harbour, as far as they were able to determine the 

 animal organisms brought to light in their tow-net operations. 



1 Gough, L. II. — Plankton collected at Irish Light Stations in 1904. 

 Fisheries, Ireland, Sci. Invest, 1904, vi., pp. I-79. [1906]. 



■ Delap, M. and C— Notes on the Plankton of Valencia Harbour 

 Fisheries, Ireland, Sci. Invest., 1905. vii. [1906] 



