140 JUNE. 



tion, for I have often seen it in postures when the 

 resemblance to a couching hare was spontaneously 

 suggested. Around Weymouth, where it is common, 

 the fishermen and shore-boys call it the Sea-cow; which 

 is not a bad hit, though not so happy as that of hare. 

 In each case, the feature which strikes the imagination 

 and suggests the comparison with the quadruped, is the 

 pair of tentacles which stand erect, but a little diverg- 

 ing, from the back of the head, and which consist of an 

 expanded lamina infolded at the base, and, as it were, 

 cut off slantingly, so as to look like a hare's ears. There 

 are, indeed, two pairs of tentacles of similar structure ; 

 but the front pair are more commonly stretched forward 

 horizontally, and held near the ground, so as to be much 

 less conspicuous. 



The animal is one of the Sea-slugs, allied, not re- 

 motely, to the Doris and the lovely Eolis, which occu- 

 pied our attention some time ago. The order to which 

 it belongs is, however, distinguished from them by 

 having the breathing organs covered. In our Sea-hare 

 these take the form of complicated leaflets, which are 



the other mounting an angle of rock, showing th front of its head, are 

 depicted in Plate xvi. So werby applied the name of " hybrida" to the 

 species, and Forbes and Hanley have adopted it ; but even the inflexible 

 law of priority does not warrant the perpetuation of a name which is 

 glaringly absurd, and expresses a manifest contradiction ; for if the creature 

 were a hybrid, it would not be a species, and not be entitled to a specific 

 name. 



