NOTE ON A SPECIMEN OF ECHINOKHINUS SPINOSUS. 265 



distinction between the elongated and stouter forms is perhaps hardly- 

 justified, and the measurements above recorded show that Plymouth 

 specimens do not invariably belong to the latter class. 



In other respects my notes as to the external features of the fish 

 agree with Day's description. 



The specimen was sent to the IMuseum of Zoology at the University 

 of Cambridge, and I am indebted to Mr. S. F. Harmer for the following 

 further facts in connection with it : 



The ovaries were undeveloped : there were no large ovarian eggs, and 

 the oviducts were quite small. 



It should be noticed in this connection that the specimen was 

 probably not full-grown. Day speaks of a female 9 feet long, contain- 

 ing 17 eggs, as having been taken off the Eddy stone, and mentions 

 a male 6 feet 2 inches long " having two large lobes of milt." 



In various parts of the alimentary canal specimens were found of the 

 parasite Distomum insigne. Several of these were attached to the roof 

 of the pharynx ; two were in the stomach, and appeared to be partially 

 digested ; one was in the small intestine, and several among the turns 

 of the spiral valve. The alimentary canal contained nothing else 

 except some glairy material and a few Isopods belonging to the species 

 Conilera cylindracea (Montagu). One of these was in the stomach, 

 and alive, though very sluggish ; the others were in the large intestine, 

 in the folds of the spiral valve, and appeared to be partially digested. 

 There was nothing else recognisable in the alimentary canal. 



In some of the specimens referred to by Day, it is stated that dog- 

 fishes were found in their stomachs, and in one specimen there were no 

 fish, but remains of Crustacea, Day further quotes a suggestion made 

 by Mr. Cornish, that there are two permanent varieties of this shark — 

 " one a ground shark : the other a reund or swimming." I have not been 

 able to find the evidence on which this suggestion was based. 



