384 SELECTED NOTES FROM 



representations of the bunches of hairs of the so-called hairy 

 larvae. E. Lovett. 



Caligus MuUerii,— I took several of the Caligus Mullerii on 

 codfish here. On a lank and sickly fish of about ten pounds 

 weight, I found as many as five dozen. 1 observed that only a 

 very few of these parasites were to be found on healthy and well- 

 fed fish ; but the one I have referred to as bearing so many had 

 apparently met with an accident, whereby the sight of one eye had 

 been destroyed, and as the injury appeared to be of old standing 

 I judged that deficient nourishment had been consequent on 

 defective vision, and analogy seemed to teach that such deficient 

 nourishment had favoured the increase in the number of these 

 parasites. 



During some two days I must have examined over two hundred 

 fish ; but my observation does not confirm the opinion that the 

 Caligus particularly affects the gills or mouth, for I found but few 

 specimens in this position. It was a congener of this fellow 

 {Lerneopoda) which is mentioned by Scoresby as attaching itself to 

 the eye of the shark, and by piercing the tissues destroying the 

 vision of its victim ; but the damage to the Gadus Morrhua, from 

 which this specimen was taken, appeared rather to have had its 

 origin in other causes. There is, I believe, and I think I have 

 seen (before I knew of its existence), an animal living parasitically 

 upon this entomostracan parasite. W. Lane Seer. 



Dog-Fish.— Mr. Tufifen West's very accurate sketch (PI. XXIV.) 

 is really a portrait from life of what Mr. W. says he "takes to be" 

 the smaller spotted dog-fish. My friend, Mr. Henry Lee, has 

 been most successful in breeding them in the Brighton Aquarium, 

 and has actually induced, and then watched and recorded, the 

 process of egg-laying by the fish, exemplifying by actual observa- 

 tion the uses as well as the application of the long gelatinous 

 tendrils (three to thirty feet) which are attached to the corners of 

 the (mermaid's purse) egg. 



I believe that the skin of both the larger and lesser spotted 

 dog-fish is applied commercially in the manufacture of corn-rasps 

 sold by many druggists ; indeed, a chemist on the south side of 

 Fleet Street has, or had a short time ago (1875, Ed.), a whole pile 

 of these corn-rasps lying in his window, with a stuffed specimen of 



