82 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. . 
cluster in the group has been produced by a different individual. 
This view appears the more likely from the fact that all the eggs 
in the large mass appear to be in the same state of development. 
Had the eggs been produced by one individual, we might reason- 
ably have concluded, from their great amount, that they could 
only have been deposited at considerable intervals, and that their 
contents would consequently show different stages of develop- 
ment. 
To account for such an association, it would appear that there 
must be some mutual impulse which leads the different individuals 
to deposit their eggs at or about the same time and in the same 
place. Their powerful sense of smell would no doubt enable 
them to come from greater or less distances and assemble at any 
particular point, either in search of prey or to deposit their ova. 
The great sense of smell possessed by these animals is well- 
known to the fishermen, who capture them in large quantities for 
bait. They are taken by depositing some dead matter in creels 
or wicker pots, and dropping the latter down in fifteen or twenty 
fathoms of water on ground known to be frequented by the 
Buccinum. I have seen the wicker pots brought up full of these 
mollusks, and with many more hanging to the outside. When 
dredging over considerable stretches of the sea-bottom, it is only 
occasionally that one or two specimens of this shell are found in 
the dredge, showing that they are by no means abundant in any 
one place. It is therefore obvious that to congregate in sufficient 
numbers to fill the fishermen’s creel, some of them must have 
come from considerable distances. 
I may remark that the common Buccinwm undatum of our 
district is much more a deep-water than a littoral species ; and 
there are therefore few opportunities of observing these large 
masses of ova, or studying the habits of the animal in its natural 
haunts. 
ANCEUS MAXILLARIS, Montagu. 
[Read 22nd September, 1893. ] 
Some time ago I brought under the notice of this Society an 
instance of the occurrence of an associated group of isopods, con- 
