XOTES AXD EXHIBITS. 311 



they were Comatulse without arms. I am now convinced that 

 this explanation of these bodies is the correct one. They are the 

 central disks of some unknown species of ComatulEc. I have 

 seen a central disk of an undescribed species, which though much 

 smaller and with very much fewer pores, yet is so similar in all 

 other respects that I do not doubt my Euktiminaria ducalis, the 

 Glenotremites paradoxus of Goldfuss, the Decamerus mysticm of 

 Hagenow, are all central disks of Comatuke. The central pores 

 on each of these organisms which bear so close a resemblance 

 to the cells of Polyzoa are doubtless connected with the water 

 circulation, like the madreporiform bodies in the Echinodermata. 

 They are not present in all the Coniatula), at least in this form. 



Ox Heterodontus galeatus. 

 By William Macleay, F.L.S., &c. 

 At our last Monthly Meeting Mr. Masters exhibited a young 

 specimen of that very rare shark, Heterodontus galeatus, caught in 

 Port Jackson a few days before. It has been my good fortune 

 to become the possessor within the last few days of another, and 

 a very fine specimen of the same Fish. The specimen in question 

 was taken in a net at Camp Cove, Port Jackson, by Hastie the 

 Fisherman . It was an adult female of unusual size and in a perfectly 

 uninjured state. When I say unusual size, I mean of course 

 when compared with tire very few specimens as yet known or 

 seen. The total length was 3 feet 6 inches, the length of the 

 head, measuring to the first gill opening — 9 inches, the breadth 

 of the head 9£ inches. The circumference or girth of the head 

 at the middle of the supraorbital ridges measured 2 feet, and the 

 girth of the body in front of the first dorsal fin was exactly the 

 same measurement. The distance from the snout to the 

 commencement of the first dorsal was 1 5 inches, the expanse from 

 tip to tip of pectoral fins 2 feet 1 inch, and the width of the 

 mouth 6 inches. The prevailing colour of the upper part is a 

 sericeous brown, with black patches as represented in Plate 25, 

 Vol. III. of our Proceedings, but these patches, though very 



