NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM. 109 



among some sea-refuse brought in by the fishing boats at New- 

 biggin, in June, 1843. At that time I was paying little atten- 

 tion to this class of animals ; but observing it was something I 

 had not seen before, I took a memorandum of it, with two or 

 three sketches, and sent the best specimen off in sea-water to my 

 friend. Dr. Johnston. Unfortunately it did not reach its des- 

 tination in a fit state for examination ; and the notice of it in 

 " British Zoophytes," was taken from the hasty note and sketch 

 that accompanied it. Had I been aware of Dr. Johnston's 

 intention of publishing it, some rather more satisfactory 

 materials might have been supplied. The species has not been 

 again met with on this coast, but the zoophyte found by Dr. 

 John Reid, at St. Andrew's, in 1845, and figured in " British 

 Zoophytes," on the same page with this (p. 463, f. 79 5), is 

 either this species, or one very nearly allied. It measured an 

 inch in length. Our animal is evidently a Corymorplia, though 

 no sheath was detected ; but this seems a very variable character ; 

 as in several specimens of Corymorpha nutans that I have since met 

 with in dredging, both in the Isle of Man, and in Cornwall, 

 only in one instance did I observe a sheath, and this of so thin and 

 filmy a character as not to be detected without close examination. 



The Hydra tuba of Dalyell, Strohila of Sars, occurs in pools 

 between tide-marks, at Cullercoats. As this is shown by Sir 

 John Dalyell and M. Sars to be the undoubted progeny of a 

 Medusa, I have not given it a regular place in this catalogue, 

 but I cannot altogether omit to notice so interesting a form of 

 apparent Hydroid Zoophyte, as it seems to be pretty permanent 

 in this state. The first time I noticed it was in the autumn of 

 1854, when it was rather plentiful on stones in shallow rock- 

 pools. Some specimens, preserved in a glass vase, lived several 

 months, multiplying slowly by gemmation. They did not show 

 any disposition to assume the Medusoid form. They were, how- 

 ever, left to procure their own nourishment from such animal 

 matters as might be contained among a few small algas and zoo- 

 phytes that were in the same water. They were killed by the 

 severe frosts of the succeeding winter. In the summer and autumn 



