MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 49 



Urticina perdix Verkill. 



Urticina perdix Verrill, Amer. Jour. Sci., XXIII., 1882, p. 223. 



Plate VII. Figs. 1, 1 a. 



This is a very handsome and large species, which sometimes expands to a 

 breadth of 200 to 250 mm. (8 to 10 inches) across the tentacles. More fre- 

 quently the expanse is 125 to 150 mm., with the body 75 to 100 mm. high and 

 broad. The body is very contractile and changeable in form. 



It lives well in aquaria. Several specimens were kept alive all summer, at 

 Wood's HoU, in 1881 and 1882. 



Color : column curiously mottled and reticulated with soft yellowish brown, 

 varying from a pale tint to deep orange-brown; the ground color is pale buff, 

 and the two colors alternate in transverse bands, the darker bands usually 

 wider below, and often zigzag, or even broken up into squarish patches, while 

 brown lines often cross the pale bands, giving an irregularly checkered pat- 

 tern. These bands and spots are usually finer and more crowded above; disk 

 usually pale yellowish olive, sometimes purplish, more brownish near the 

 mouth, with faint alternating radii of lighter and darker tints; lips chocolate- 

 brown, or red-brown; tentacles similar to disk, but paler, with two or three 

 broad and ill-defined bands of brownish or purplish, the one near the tip faint, 

 the basal one broader on the sides. 



This was dredged several times by the U. S. Fish Commission, in 1880 to 

 1882, in the warm belt, off Martha's Vineyard, in 61 to 115 fathoms. It has 

 not yet been taken, except in this region. It was not obtained by the Blake. 



Urticina censors Verrill. 



Urticina consors Verrill, Amer. Jour. Sci., XXIII., 1882, p. 225. 



Plate VIII. Fig. 4. 



A delicately colored species, with a soft, smooth integument. Column elon- 

 gated in expansion; above, occasionally showing a few warts and longitudinal 

 plications; margin simple. Tentacles numerous, in about four circles, crowded 

 toward the margin ; they are rather short and stout, tapered, acute, the outer 

 ones much smaller. Mouth with strong, whitish, gonidial grooves at both 

 ends, and about ten lobes on each side, separated by darker grooves. Color of 

 body nearly uniform salmon, or rosy; tentacles a paler shade of the same, the 

 outer ones with a flake-white blotch at the base, outside; disk pale salmon, 

 with a pale bluish tint, and with flake-white radii, forking at the tentacles; 

 mouth bright orange inside, with lines of reddish brown on the lips. Height, 

 about 2 inches; diameter, 1.5 inches. 



This species was taken in small numbers, off Martha's Vineyard, in 160 to 

 312 fathoms, 1880 to 1882. 



All the specimens obtained were on the backs of a brilliantly colored species 



VOL. XI. — NO. 1. 4 



