On some Crustacea nexo to or rare in the British Seas. 89 



XI. — On a Crangon, some Schizopoda, and Cumacea new 

 to or rare in the Bi'itish Seas. By the Rev. Canon A. M. 

 Norman, M.A., D.C.L., F.L.S. * 



The Scotch Fishery Board have sent me for examination 

 some of the higher Crustacea which have been met with 

 during the past year. Among them are many species of 

 interest, and these are recorded in the following notes. With 

 few exceptions the several forms are now first published as 

 members of our Fauna, although some of them have been long 

 known to myself. Mr. Brook and Mr. Scott must be con- 

 gratulated on the success which has brought these species to 

 light, and their discovery will, I trust, lead other naturalists 

 to realize how much remains to be done among the great class 

 of Crustacea in our seas, and that careful investigation will 

 be amply rewarded even among the higher orders ; but no 

 real progress can be made with respect to the food of fishes 

 until investigators are familiar with those smaller Crustacea 

 which constitute so large a portion of that food. As an 

 instance of this I may mention that Dr. Baird, many years 

 ago, published an interesting paper on the food of the vendace. 

 No author at that time was more competent to undertake the 

 task, and one of the Entomostraca in the stomachs was 

 new to science, Bosmina coregonij and has not as yet been 

 met with elsewhere in our islands than in Lochmaben. 

 Yet when I repeated these investigations three years ago, I 

 found that while the vendace fed on those species recorded by 

 Dr. Baird, a large portion, perhaps in bulk the largest portion, of 

 its food, was Leptodora hyalina, an Entomostracan unknown to 

 Dr. Baird, and which, from its extraordinary tenuity, delicacy, 

 and transparency, and its totally difterent form from that 

 usual among Cladocera, was no doubt passed over by my 

 old friend as something he could not make out, though it is 

 much larger than the species he satisfactorily determined. A 

 " more dainty dish to set before a" fish cannot well be ima- 

 gined than Leptodora liyalina^ an animal so transparent that, 

 notwithstanding its size, it can scarcely be detected in a glass 

 of water unless held up to the light. 



• [It seems desirable that this paper should be printed in the ' Annals,' 

 as * The Fourth Annual Eeport of the Fishery Board of Scotland/ in 

 which it has already been published, is hardly likely to have extensive 

 circulation among carcinologists. — A. M. N.] 



