106 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [400] 
selves on such bottoms, while many other species, frequenting the same 
localities, have a similar coloration, though belonging to very different 
groups. As examples we may mention the beautifully variegated star- 
fish, Ophiopholis aculeata, (Plate XX XV, fig. 270,) rare in this region, but 
very abundant in the Bay of Fundy; Crangon boreas, common on the’ 
same bottoms in the Bay of Fundy ; several species of shrimp belonging 
to the genera Hippolyte, Pandalus, &c. The bright red colors of all these 
animals would certainly be very fatal to them were there no red alge 
among which they could conceal themselves and thus escape, to a con- 
siderable extent, from the voracious fishes, which are nearly always 
ready to pounce upon them whenever they expose themselves. One or 
two handsome species of dolis (similar to fig. 174) were taken, but for 
lack of opportunity they were not identified while living, and these soft 
and delicate creatures cannot be preserved in alcohol so as to be identi- 
fied afterwards with certainty. The handsome little Doto coronata 
(Plate XXV, fig. 170) oceurs occasionally on the hydroids, upon the 
animals of which it feeds. This species is generally less than half an 
inch in length. The body is pale yellowish, or salmon-color, or rosy, 
specked with pink, light red, or dark red, which often forms a median 
dorsal line toward the head; the curious papillose branchiwe along the 
back are pale orange, the lateral and terminal papille being tipped with 
bright purplish red, dark red, or carmine, with a ring of flake-white 
below the tip; the head and tentacles are pale and translucent. The 
eggs are laid upon the hydroids, in long, flattened, and convoluted gelati- 
nous strings, at various times during the early summer. 
Another curious and beautifully colored naked mollusk, the Polycera 
Lessonii, also occurs occasionally on rocky bottoms, among hydroids and 
bryozoa. In this species the body is pale flesh-color, or sometimes pale 
orange, and thickly covered with bright, deep green specks, giving the 
whole surface a green color; along the back is a median line of tuber- 
cles or papille, and there are two other rows on each side, which extend 
as far as the gills or a little beyond; all these tubercles are tipped with 
bright sulphur-yellow, except that the last ones of the lateral rows, 
posterior to the gills, are usually tipped with flake-white, but these have 
two or three irregular, lateral lobes, which are tipped with yellow; 
other smaller, yellow tubercles are scattered over the back, sides, head, 
and tail; the tentacles are also bright yellow, but sometimes specked 
with green and yellow, with yellow tips. The gills are three in number, 
in a cluster on the middle line of the back, posteriorly ; each one is 
bipinnate and delicately plumose; they are colored similar to the back, 
generally more or less specked with bright yellow, and often with flake- 
white ; the tips are usually bright yellow. 
Another small but singular species, which also occurs among the hy- 
droids, as well as among dead shells, is the Doridella obscura, (Plate 
XXYV, fig. 173;) in this the colors are not conspicuous, but seem rather 
intended for its concealment. The back is sometimes light, yellowish 
