Oatty Marine Laboratory , St. Andrews. 529 



shape at the tip, like a billhook. A form from the Channel 

 Islands, however, differs from the foregoing and agrees with 

 Ephesia antarctica of the ' Challenger ' Expedition in having 

 articulated bristles, the shaft showing the same distinct curve 

 backward at its distal third, a dilated and bevelled end, but 

 with a short tapered terminal piece. Yet some show fusion 

 of the terminal process, and thus transform the bristle into 

 the ordinary type. Whether as knowledge extends the 

 foreign forms as well as the foregoing may be amalgamated 

 with the common type is still an open question. At any rate, 

 so far as general structure goes, Ephesia appears to be a near 

 ally of the Syllidse. 



Two British species of Chlorajmidas were included in 

 Dr. Johnston's Catalogue in 1865, viz. Stylarioides plumosa, 

 O. F. M., as Trophonia plumosa, and Flabelligera affinis, 

 Sars, as Siphonostoma uncinata, Aud. & Edwards. In the 

 ' Fauna of Plymouth ' (1904) no addition has been made to 

 the foregoing meagre list. Besides these, several additional 

 forms have to be noted, some of which are known in Nor- 

 wegian waters/ whilst others do not appear to have been 

 described. 



Stylarioides plumosa, O. F. M., is generally distributed in 

 the North European seas, and extends to Greenland and the 

 American shores; and though common between layers of 

 shale and laminated sandstone, or in dark odoriferous mud, 

 yet the cod and the haddock seem to find it out, probably 

 after dislodgment by storms. The stomach of the latter 

 occasionally contains dozens. It is a striking form — with its 

 pinkish palpi, grass-green branchiae, long resplendent ante- 

 rior bristles, and its rugose surface. The mouth is a vertical 

 slit below the palpi, with fleshy lips which slowly open and 

 close in the continuous swallowing of water and probably 

 also of muddy sand as food under ordinary conditions. The 

 inner surface of the lips is pale reddish brown. Rarely a 

 hoof-shaped process, with the flat surface pointing ventrally, 

 is thrust out, the anterior or dorsal arch having the eight 

 green branchiae along its edge, whilst posteriorly are two 

 external lateral, two small median below the mouth, and a 

 larger posterior or ventral process besides the palpi. On an 

 eminence in the centre above the mouth are two brown 

 pigment-spots which may represent eyes. In a partially 

 contracted example — living or dead — the anterior region 

 shows a vertical slit, more or less widened in the centre 

 according to circumstances, and having a frilled margin 

 surrounded by a fringe of longer papillae. On each side is a 



