90 Mr. Thompson on the Mollusca of Ireland. 



servation in spirits, no attention was bestowed upon it. In 

 June lastj a considerable number of individuals of this species 

 were taken in the dredge near Bangor, (county Down,) by 

 Dr. J. L. Drummond, who being unacquainted with them, at 

 once drew up a very minute and excellent description from 

 the living animals, illustrating it at the same time with several 

 sketches. Under the head of "general observations," it is 

 remarked in Dr. Drummond's journal : " Animal either very 

 active and coursing repeatedly round the basin, or hanging 

 by its disk apphed to the surface of the water. Touch very 

 acute, the tentacula and cirri shrinking at the slightest ap- 

 plication of a foreign body. On killing a specimen by keep- 

 ing it some time in fresh-water, the cirri every one dropped 

 off on the slightest touch*." Some of these specimens (from 

 spirits) are of large size, several being 9^ and 10 lines in 

 length. In the disposition and length of the branchial fila- 

 ments there is great diversity : in one individual these fila- 

 ments are as long as its entire body, or 7 lines in length ; in 

 another of equal size, they are half the length of its body ; in 

 some they are conspicuously in fasciculi ; in others they ap- 

 pear to be in a continuous row : none however exhibit fila- 

 ments of a clavate form like those of the Doris pedata of 

 Montagu (see Johnston in Annals above-cited) ; they are ge- 

 nerally pointed f. 



To the kindness of Edmund Getty, Esq., I owe the results 

 of a day's dredging in Belfast Bay, in October last, among 

 which was a mollusk of this species. 



Euplocamus plumosus, mihi. PI. XL fig. 4. 



E. with body elongated, tapering to the tail, 3 plumose branchial 

 filaments. 



• Mr. R. Patterson, who accompanied Dr. Drummond on the occasion, 

 favours me with the following note : " To avoid this, I took a number of 

 living specimens, and by the successive addition of some table salt, con- 

 verted the sea-water into pretty strong brine. While doing so the motions 

 of the animal became gradually more feeble, and then ceased. The branchiae 

 did not appear detached, and the specimens were placed in a bottle along 

 with the brine in which they had been killed. The result was however the 

 same; thej' separated as much as if the shock from fresh-water had still 

 been sustained, and the liquid became so foetid and discoloured (perhaps 

 from the presence of too much animal matter,) that the entire contents of 

 the bottle wei'e thrown away." 



f Nevertheless I cannot but think that D. pedata is identical with the 

 species under consideration. 



