io NATURAL SCIENCE. Jan., 



"Microscopical Studies of Marine Zoology" with the Corynidae, 

 Serhdavia pumila, and the Cirripedia, all of which are illustrated in the 

 plates. There is also a somewhat belated and rather curious article 

 on Spirula peronii by E. H. L. Schwarz. 



We wish the Jersey Biological Station and its interesting journal 

 the success that they deserve. 



Zoology in Japan. 



English naturalists do not appear to be aware of the existence 

 of a scientific journal published at Tokyo by the Keigyosha, and 

 entitled The Zoological Magazine. This is not to be wondered at, for 

 till recently the greater part of this journal was in the Japanese 

 language. We have, however, received three interesting papers 

 reprinted from it, all written in English. The first, by Professor 

 K. Mitsukuri and S. Ikeda, March, 1895, figures and describes a 

 gigantic Cephalopod which was caught in a net by some fishermen in 

 the Bay of Tateyama not far from Tokyo, having been driven inshore 

 by a violent storm. It appears to be of the genus Architeuthis, which 

 numbers so many monsters, but the authors are unable to identify it 

 with any known species. They do not, however, give to it any name, 

 since they think it may possibly be identical with the gigantic 

 Cephalopod which Hilgendorf saw in Tokyo and named Megateuthis 

 martensii in the Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft der Naturforschende 

 Freunde, 1880, a paper which the Japanese writers have been unable 

 to see. The length of the body on the dorsal median line is 72 cm., 

 the length of the longest sessile arm, namely, the left of the ventral 

 pair, is 122 cm., the length of the tentacular arms is 291 cm. 

 Although large, still these measurements are small compared with 

 other species of the genus ; and this fact, taken together with the 

 unripe condition of the reproductive glands, suggests that " the 

 animal was still immature — in fact, the baby of a giant." The second 

 paper, by Professor Mitsukuri (June, 1895), announces the occurrence 

 in Japanese waters of a species of Hariotta. This genus of Chimaeroid 

 fish was not long ago described by Messrs. Brown Goode and Bean 

 from specimens collected off the coasts of Virginia, Maryland, and 

 Delaware. The occurrence of so rare a genus in both the Pacific and 

 Atlantic Oceans is, as Professor Mitsukuri remarks, " an interesting 

 fact, well worthy of being placed on record as speedily as possible." 

 The third paper, by Jiuta Hara (October, 1895), * s a " Description of 

 a new species of Comatula, Antedon macrodiscus," of common occurrence 

 near Misaki, and belonging to the Milberti group. The author compares 

 his species with A . milberti, A . carinata, and A . rosacea, but curiously 

 makes no mention of Hartlaub's Antedon japonica from the same 

 locality, which, though different, is quite as close an ally. This paper 

 compares unfavourably with the other two in the absence of an 

 illustration. 



We may add here some personal information kindly supplied by 



