ZOOLOGY. 



795 



the mouth. An examiuation of the bones of the head shows however 

 that notwithstanding the very abnormal external appearance, the actual 

 divergence from the typical fish skull is less than might have been an- 

 ticipated, and in fact is not so much a divergence from the type as a 

 variation of it." 



" The hyoid bones are the least normal; the urohyal is slight ; the 

 basihyal short, and the glossohyal very small and slightly longer than 

 broad. The most advanced of these bones, the glossohyal, reaches only 

 to the transverse division at the base of the mandibles, whereas in Mugil 

 waigiensis [or any other mullet] the basihyal and glossohyal bones 

 are large and prominent, supporting the whole floor of the mouth and 

 extending almost to the symphysis of the lower jaw." 



The new form has been named ^schrychtys Goldiei. Good-sized 

 specimens are 18 inches in length. {Proc. Linn. Soc, N. S. Wales, v. 8? 

 pp. 2-6.) 



The nest of the fifteen-spined SticTdebacTc. — Like all the other species of 

 the family Gasteros^eidae, the fifteen-spined or 'salt- water stickleback 

 builds a nest attached to certain plants, which is much like those of its 

 congeners, but some additional information has been communicated by 

 Professor K. Mobius respecting the constitution of the threads by 

 which it interweaves the particles constituting its nest, and the origin 

 of those threads. An examination of male sticklebacks, in May and 

 June, 1884, demonstrated to him that the threads are generally from 

 0-12°'™ to 0-13'"™ in diameter, and consist of several cords stuck to- 

 gether, and which again are composed of very fine parallel threads. 

 The substance of which they are composed is nitrogenous, and is a 

 l)eculiar modification of mucine as appears by its behavior towards 

 various acids and alkalies. It is formed in the kidneys of the male, 

 and indeed in the epithelial cells of the urinary canals, which exert this 

 form of activity only at the time of reproduction, and during this period 

 it behaves towards staining re-agents in the same way as the mucifer- 

 ous organs of other vertebrata. {Schriften natur- Yereins f. ISchlesicig- 

 Holstein, v. 6; Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (5), v. 16, p. 153.) 



A tropical Gunnel Fish. — The family of Mursenoidids or Xiphidiontids 

 had been supposed to be a characteristic cold-water type. All the pre- 

 viously known species were confined to the seas of the temperate and 

 north polar regions until the discovery had been made of a species of 

 the family representing a peculiar genus occurring at Key West, Fla. 

 The species has been named Stathmonotus Hemphilii by Dr. Bean, 

 the curator of fishes in the U. S. National Museum. Most of the char- 

 acteristics of the new generic type are shared with the common gun- 

 nels or species of Muraenoides, but it has no scales ; moreover, on one 

 hand, the pectorals are much smaller, and on the other the ventrals 



