48 PECTINID. 
the conchological indices, which afford valuable corroborative 
assistance. 
At Exmouth this species is taken in the coralline zone in 
great abundance; so much so, that they might be, perhaps, 
preserved in jars, if their delicacy did not prevent sufficient 
firmness, and would prove a more delicious morsel than the 
pickled oysters of the Italian warehouse. 
P. varius, Linnzus. 
P. varius, Brit. Moll. i. p. 273, pl. 50. f. 1. 
The general structure and composition of this animal is so 
similar to that of the type, P. opercularis, that it will only be 
necessary to note the specialty variations. In this species, 
the reflected or inner free margin is, as to colour, marked with 
pale red or brown irregular blotches, with the edge frmged 
with a single row of thin, white, blunt filaments, which, though 
short, vary in length; the outer or fixed margin has at the 
innermost part, at equal distances, a row of long, conical, 
light yellow cirrhi; to these succeed 30-35 ocelli, which have 
more black and a less pearly appearance in them than in the 
type; and the outermost paraphernalia of this margin consists 
of two irregular rows of extremely fine, snow-white filaments 
of three lengths. The branchiz are in all respects similar to 
the type, except in being of the palest drab; the body and 
ovarium, which is amalgamated with it, is of a pale yellow 
cream-colour, mottled with thick-set flakes, which have the 
aspect of ova; we are not sure if the vermilion colour ever 
appears in this species; all its organs are of a much more deli- 
cate, elegant and refined aspect than im any of its congeners 
of similar bulk. The intestine terminates by a short, white, 
slightly grooved rectum, spatulate at the end. The labia are 
pale fawn, and the two connecting foliated rows of frmge of 
light drab. The ovarium, or that part of the body consti- 
tuting this organ, is at this season, August, full of ova, and an 
opake red milky fluid, as in the type. We here repeat, that 
we do not believe in the bisexuality of the Acephala, by which 
term is meant that each individual is either male or female. 
