REMARKABLE SPECIES OF i:CHlUROIDS. 17 



markings that consisted of narrow transverse stripes of a deep 

 bro^Yn to brownish-black color. The stripes were either continuous 

 from side to side or interrupted more or less in their course. 

 Some of them were much narrower than others. They were very 

 numerous and closely situated on the concave and furrowed side 

 of the body, while on the other side they were present at wider 

 intervals besides being represented always by irregularly broken 

 or discontinuous streaks. The extreme ends of the body were 

 either rounded off or notched in and strongly contracted, in the 

 latter case appearing like the severed end of a preserved tape- 

 worm. Wormlike as the object was, neither the head nor the 

 tail end could be distinguished ; nor was ever an opening that 

 might pass for the mouth could be detected on it. In the 

 living state, it exercised a slow wave-like movement that proceeded 

 without a definite rule as to its direction. 



The body in question has been taken from time to time in 

 the sea near the Misaki Marine Laboratory. It has also been 

 observed or obtained at several other locatities ; f. i., by Mr. 

 Namiye in Tsushima (Strait of Corea) and in Tomo (Prov. Bingo, 

 Inland Sea) ; by Mr. Hatta in Amakusa (Kiushiu) ; by Mr. 

 Yatsu in Haneda (Gulf of Tokyo) ; by Professor Oka in Tate- 

 yama (entrance to the G. of Tokyo) ; etc. It is evident that the 

 creature is distributed over a wide stretch of the coasts of Japan. 



At first sight one is irresistably led to assume that the object 

 is a Nemertean. In fact it was surmised to be one — perhaps a 

 highly degenerated form of the group — by several observers and 

 more than one of them had gone into a study of its minute 

 structure. At another time it had engaged the special attention 

 of a student who had suspected in it an aberrant form of Tur- 

 bellaria. But, after all, none of the observers could come to a 



