Miscellaneous. 355 



owing to the flattened and, up to a certain point, annelidan form of 

 its appendages. Moreover, this is not the only interesting pecu- 

 liarity exhibited by the latter. Their horseshoe-shaped spinulous 

 arches are five in number, and sometimes there may even be ob- 

 served the indications of a sixth arch ; the limbs belonging to the 

 penultimate and antepenultimate pairs have only four of these 

 arches, like the normal limbs of the other American species, and 

 those of the last pair, as usual, have no more than two. The 

 portion of the limbs which terminates in the claws is no less well 

 characterized, for it bears at the tip two papilla? in front and two 

 behind, while the other species of Peripatus have only one papilla 

 on the posterior portion of their appendages. 



The pit with a delicate lining exhibited by the limbs on their 

 ventral surface is at least as well developed as in the other American 

 species ; but the nephridial pores on the limbs of the fourth and 

 fifth pairs have a slightly different situation : they occasion a deep 

 notch and even a break of continuity in the intermediate spinulous 

 arch. In reality they occupy the very place where they are found 

 in all the species of Peripatus. 



The genital orifice is enclosed between the limbs of the penulti- 

 mate pair, as in the other American species. 



The specimen that I have studied belongs to the female sex ; it 

 had no embryos in its uteri. 



In its very numerous and flattened limbs, the complex armature 

 of its jaws, the four papillae, and the five spinulous arches of its 

 extremities this species exhibits characters more primitive than 

 those found in any other Peripatus, and consequently presents a 

 greater resemblauce to the annelidan form whence the group is 

 derived. Since it is besides very easily recognizable owing to the 

 great tuberculiform papillae which are borne on the dorsal surface, 

 I propose to designate it Peripatus titberculatus. — Comptes liendus, 

 t. cxxvi. No. 21 (May 23, 189S), pp. 1524-1525. 



On the Presence of the Common Eel in the Open Sea. 

 By L£on Va ill ant. 



In the collections handed over by His Serene Highness Prince 

 Albert of Monaco to the Ichthyological Laboratory of the Museum 

 d'Histoire naturelle there is a fish which is rendered curious owing 

 to the circumstances under which it was obtained. It was removed 

 by Captain Chaves, Director of the Observatory of Punta Dclgada, 

 from the stomach of a Cachalot, and, as we know, these Cetodonts 

 feed upon lower animals, especially Cephalopods, the remains of 

 which are met with in their alimentary canal, to the exclusion, as 

 it seems, of all other prey. 



The fish, which is eel-like in shape, is about 90 centimetres in 

 length and of the thickness of a man's arm ; its weight may be 

 estimated at 1500 or 2000 grammes ; the action of the digestive 

 juices has had but little effect upon it, so that it is possible to deter- 

 mine its characters very precisely. It is an Apod ; the osseous 



