22 LIVERPOOL MARINE BIOLOGY COMMITTEE REPORT. 



" It is curious to think that these two gentle creatures, Cydippe 

 and Bero'e, which I encountered at such a long interval, and with 

 which I became such good friends, proved to be mortal enemies I 

 At least, that the Bero'e should be the natural foe of the Cydippe, 

 which she pursues and swallows, one after another (if small enough, to 

 the number of three, four, or even five), till the ingerent and ingesta, 

 both equally transparent, look like a gauze bag crammed with 

 decanters ! Whilst, if the victim be the larger of the two, as is very 

 often the case, the captor will fasten on its prey like a lamprey, and 

 take a large piece out of the side, leaving the poor unresisting Cydippe 

 to sail about with cabin window wide open," 



The paper on ''Beroid Babies" {Remains, p. 532), directs 

 the willing observer to select, at the close of summer, *' a 

 large damaged specimen oi Beroe'' which he would reject for 

 any other purpose, . . " and place it in a sample bottle 

 of very clear sea- water ; this will soon swarm with eggs." 

 These, in his own metaphorical style, Mr. Price discourses 

 on, especially noting that from the very first they are " so 

 very like their own mama." Regarded as Hydrozoa, this 

 might be noteworthy. 



In the correspondence elicited by the preparation of the 

 present paper, the writer received the following note : — 



Jan. 23, 1880. 



Dear Mr. Higgins, — I ought to have stated that C. pileus was 

 always abundant at Birkenhead, C. pomiformis rare, hut perhaps often 

 unnoticed ; Beroe ovata only occasional, sometimes tinted mauve, some- 

 times olive-green. Alcinoe veriniformis (Cuvier), which Patterson called 

 Bolina hibernica, occurred twice only aS marvels ! I made fifty draw- 

 ings of the first I saw ! I met with several swimming past the little 

 pier at Blairmore, on the north side of the Clyde, and caught one 

 which greatly astonished Mr. Young, curator of the Glasgow Museum. 

 It is a creature of extraordinary beauty, and very curious structure : 

 "vermiformis " is a bad name, referring only to some very small wrigg- 

 ling tentacles, at the edge of the mouth. Look for him at the obsolete 

 Monks' Ferry slip, south side, at half-flood or ebb. " Nature is true to 

 herself," said Ed. Forbes, and there the creature came, twice, at any 



