94 Miscellaneous. 



the buccal parts of the female of Sepia tubereulata of the Cape, be- 

 cause it presented the following peculiarity : the male had fixed the 

 whole mass of the spermatophores on the external surface of the 

 buccal membrane — a thing which I have never seen in any other 

 Sepia, although I have sometimes observed that a few spermatophores 

 had separated from the others and fixed on the external surface, 

 nay, even near the base of the arms. How far is this arrangement 

 entirely accidental in S. tubercuhta ? This I cannot decide, as I 

 have examined onlj^ one individual ; at any rate the observation in 

 question is not without interest relatively to Hemisepins, for in that 

 species the spermatophores are fixed on the part of the lip which 

 usually fulfils this office in the Sepians and the Loliginians ; but some 

 are found, nevertheless, on the margin of the lip, and even on the ex- 

 ternal surface. The preceding will suffice, I think, to show that in 

 the actual state of our knowledge our example of Hemisepius, al- 

 though small, ought not to be regarded as a young and undeveloped 

 individual, but as an adult. 



To facilitate the comparison of the characters of Hemisepius and 

 the Sepias the two plates which accompany this memoir contain many 

 details hitherto unknown. It will be seen, for example, that in the 

 species which seems to me to be the Sepia tuhercidata, Lamk., there 

 are eight rows of suckers at the extremity of the eight arms, instead 

 of four or two, — that a new species from Japan {S. Andreana) has 

 the arms of the second pair elongated in an extraordinary manner, 

 doubtless to fulfil some particular function, — and that there are even 

 some Sepias which have the lobes of their biiccal membrane provided 

 with suckers, like the greater part of the Loliginians, for example the 

 Sepia acideata, v. Hass. — Comptes Rendus, October 4, 1875, p. 567. 



On the Ichthyological Fauna of the Island of St. Paid. 

 By M. H. E. Sauvage. 



The study of the distribution of living creatures on the surface 

 of the globe has acquired great importance of late years, and more 

 than ever we are now-a-days interested in botanical and zoological 

 geography. It is only by the knowledge of the distribution of 

 organisms that we shall succeed in understanding how the forms are 

 grouped which sometimes give so peculiar a physiognomy to a 

 country — that we shall arrive, no doubt, at a knowledge of the mi- 

 grations of these creatures, and how they have radiated from their 

 centres of origin. 



As may be easily understood, isolated islands possess the greatest 

 interest from this point of view. Their flora and fauna have, in fact, 

 remained what they were from the fii'st ; and the variations, if varia- 

 tions have taken place, must have been confined within narrow 

 limits, not exceeding what they may be in the type. Undoubtedly 

 the study of the terrestrial and fluviatile animals is most in- 

 structive from this point of view ; but that of the marine animals 

 nevertheless possesses great interest. 



The island of St. Paul, lost in the Indian Ocean, miist possess 



