I go 7 . ] ■ Reco rds of th e I n dia n Miiseii m. 177 



recognized by its large conical shell, which measures about 4^ 

 inches in length and is marked with more or less confused longitu- 

 dinal chocolate stripes. 



N. Annandale. 



POLYZOA. 



Statoblasts from the surface of a Himalayan pond. — 

 During a recent visit (in April and May) to the Simla district in the 

 Western Himalayas I made a careful examination of the surface of 

 all ponds, wells and streams I came across, in the hope of finding 

 floating sponge gemmules or polyzoon statoblasts. So much dust 

 is blown up from the plains of the Punjab into the hills that I rather 

 expected to find these bodies on the water, even if the organisms 

 which produce them did not occur. In almost ever}^ case but one, 

 however, my search was fruitless, although at first sight I took for 

 gemmules certain bodies which were probably the egg-shells of the 

 Phyllopod Crustacean Branchinecta orientalis, Sars. On the horse- 

 pond at Theog, a village situated at an altitude of 8,000 feet about 

 seventeen miles beyond the town of Simla, I found in a scum of 

 animal and vegetable debris numerous statoblasts agreeing in every 

 respect with those of the typical Pluniatella emarginata, and although 

 I was unable to find living colonies of this animal, it is possible that 

 they existed on certain stones near the centre of the pond that I 

 was unable to reach. Together with the statoblasts were certain 

 other bodies which may be those of some unknown species. Each 

 contained two brownish capsules, which were approximately circular 

 in outline and were enclosed in a mass of air-cells. One edge of the 

 whole structure was straight while the other was curved. I know 

 of no species to which they can belong. Similar bodies were also 

 found on the surface of a small pond above the village of Phagu, 

 at a point about five hundred feet higher than Theog and five miles 

 nearer Simla. 



N. Annandale. 



Notes on Hislopia lacustris, Carter. — Through the kindness 

 of Dr. N. Annandale, I have recently had the opportunity of 

 comparing a specimen of Hislopia lacustris from Calcutta with the 

 same species as it occurs in the United Provinces at Bulandshahr. 

 Dr. Annandale has so fully described this Polyzoon as met with 

 in Calcutta [Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. ii, No. 3, March 1906, 

 diudi id. , vol. iii, No. 2, February 1907), that I shall content myself 

 with pointing out in what respects specimens from the United Prov- 

 inces of India differ from those found, some 700 miles further east, 

 at Calcutta. 



Dr. Annandale's observations were made in Januar}^ and Febru- 

 ary {i.e., in the " cold weather ") at Calcutta, and mine were made 

 in April and May {i.e., at the beginning of the " hot weather ") at 

 Bulandshahr ; but Dr. Annandale tells me that he has recently ex- 

 amined specimens taken in Calcutta in June and that they do not 

 differ from those taken in February in the same tank. 



