DISCUSSION OF UPECIES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 3 



tities and with wonderful rapidity. A single hag will fill a two-gallon Ijncket with slime 

 mingled with water in a few seeonds, and after a slight interval ean repeat tlie operation 

 with ease. The eggs are elliptical iu shape, and are snpplied at each end with numerous 

 sJiort threails for adhesion. Nausen lias made an exceedingly interesting investigation into 

 the hermaphroditism of this form. 



Myxine occurs only iu the XortU Atlantic. On the coasts of Europe it is found in the Nor 

 wegiau Fiords as deep as 70 fatlioms, and it ranges as far south as Newcastle and the Firth 

 of Forth. In the western Atlantic it is known to occur on the offshore banks as far north 

 as the Grand Bank of Newfouudhmd, and probably still farther north through the Arctic 

 Sea; and it also occiu-s on the shoals in the Bay of Fundy, one of the best known colonies 

 being ou the cod bank to the eastward of the north end of the island of Grand Manan. 

 The fishermen of the offshore banks frequently pull them to the surface clinging to the fish 

 taken on their hooks. In the deeper waters of tlie western Atlantic they have been found 

 as far south as lat. 38° 31', Ion. 73° 25', off the capes of Delaware by the Fish Commis- 

 sion at a depth of 12G fathoms, and off Cape Fear, North Carolina, lat. 34°, Ion. 76'= 10', 

 at a depth of 178 fathoms. Off Marthas Vineyard tliey have been found by t4ie Fish Com- 

 mission at a depth of 204 fii thorns, with a temperature of 47°, and fiirther out at sea in the 

 same region by the BJaJce at 304 fothoms (lat. 40'= 11' 40", Ion. 08° 22'), and 524 fathoms 

 (lat. 410 32', Ion. Go'^ 55'). 



The form is so abundant off the New England coast in depths of 100 to 250 fathoms that a 

 record of all the localities of its occurrence has not been kept. It is known, however, that 

 specimens were obtained from the following stations of the Blake: 309, 306, and 327; and 

 also from the following stations of the Fish Commission steamers: 869, 870, 871, 878, 939, 

 951, 1038, 1047, 1154, 2080, 2088, 2089, 2092. 



MYXINE AUSTRALIA, Jexyns. (Figure 2.) 



Ml/line aiislralh, Jenyxs, Voyage of H. M. S. Beadle, Zoiilogy (edited by Charles Darwin). 1839-43; Fishes; 



159; GiJXTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mns., viir, 1870, 511; Challenger Report, xxii, 1887, 267. 

 Heptatrcma cin-hatiim, .Schlkgel, Fauna .laponioa, Poissons, 310, pi. 143 (fiih Giinther). 



A My.vinc with ten or eleven slender teeth in each of the two series; the three foremost 

 strongest and continent at the base, the other teeth remaining separate; in the second 

 series the two innermost teeth are confluent at the base. 



M. austral is was first described from Sandy Point and the Tyssen Island, at the south- 

 ern extremity of South America. It was found by tlie Cliallciigcr in the .Japanese Sea, 

 where six specimens from 9 to 20 inches iu length were taken on the Hyalonema ground at 

 a depth of 345 fatlioms (Station 232). Dr. Giinther is of the opinion that Ilcptatrema cirrha- 

 turn Schlegel, from Japan, should be referred to the same .species. The Challenger obtained 

 specimens of 31. australis from the Straits of Magellan, and the species is most i)robably an 

 inhabitant of the deeper waters to the east of Patagonia, and entitled to a place in the 

 fauna of the Atlantic basin. 



Order HYPEROARTIA. 



Cyclostomuta hyperoartia, McLLER, Abhandl. Akad. Wiss., Berlin, 1834, 77. 

 Hyperonrtia, Gill, Johnson's Cyclopsedia, ii, 1079. 



An order of Marsipobranchiates distinguished by the development of tlie skull and the 

 ccecal nature of the median external nasal aperture; no duct perforating the palate, which 

 is, therefore, left entire (whence the name). Tlie branchial apertures are on each side' 

 behind the head, and seveu in number; the inner branchial ducts debouch into a separate 

 common tube. Tlie ova are small and superficially like those of fishes. The young undergo 

 a complete metamorphosis after leaving the egg. Tiie larviB liave an elcngated slit like 

 mouth, and are without teeth or eyes. In this condition they were formerly considered to 

 be members of a peculiar group [Ammoewtes]. At maturity the mouth is circular, surrounded 



