Miscellaneous. 461 



can onl}- be effected by the pressure to which the sac is subjected 

 the moment the spine enters another body. 



Nobody will suppose that a complicated apparatus like the one 

 described can be intended for conveying an innocuous substance, and 

 therefore I have not hesitated to designate it as poisonous ; and the 

 greatest importance must be attached to it, inasmuch as it assists us 

 in our inquiries into the nature of the functions of the muciferous 

 system, the idea of its being a secretory organ having lately been 

 superseded by the notion that it serves merely as a stratum for the 

 distribution of peripheric nerves. Also the objection that the Sting- 

 Rays and many Siluroid fishes are not poisonous, because they have 

 no poison-organ, cannot be maintained, although the organs con- 

 ▼eymg their poison are neither so well adapted for this purpose nor 

 in such a perfect connexion with the secretory mucous system as in 

 Thalassopkryne. 



Finally, I have to add that neither Batrachus nor Poricktkys has 

 the spines perforated, and also that in Thalasiophryne the poison- 

 organ serves merely as a weapon of defence. All the Batrachoids 

 with obtuse teeth on the palate and in the lower jaw feed on MoUusca 

 and Crustaceans. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On the Naturalization of the White Hare in Faroe. 



To Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. ^e. 



My dear Sir, — The enclosed extract from a letter from my friend 

 Mr. Muller, of Faroe (member of the Danish parliament), will ex- 

 plain my object in sending you one of the specimens ofLepus varia- 

 bilisl which he mentions. 



It seems a very successful case of naturalization : the species, of 

 course, did not need acclimatizing. 



Yours very truly, 

 Wtllington, Newcastle-on-Tyne, W. C. Trevelyan. 



Nov. 9, 1864. 



"In 1854 or 1855, two pairs of Hares were introduced into 

 Stromoe (Faroe) from Norway : they have increased so rapidly that 

 there are thousands now in the island. One may shoot twenty in a 

 day upon the hilb, and it will be impossible to exterminate them. 



" I have tried several times to import the Ptarmigan from Iceland, 

 but hitherto without success. It appears that they cannot live more 

 than two or three days when captured. Eggs have proved unsuc- 

 cessful, too, the greater part having been sat upon." 



Description of Lophogaster typicus. By M. Sars. 

 At the present day zoologists devote their attention especially to 

 those exceptional forms which serve to unite groups otherwise dis- 

 tinct. These forms, which at one time were regarded as embarrassuig 



