106 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [400] 



selves on such bottoms, while many other species, frequenting' the same 

 localities, have a similar coloration, though belonging to very different 

 groups. As examples we may mention the beautifully variegated star- 

 fish, Opliiopliolis aculeata, (Plate XXXV, fig. 270,) rare in this region, but 

 very abundant in the Bay of Fundy ; Crangon boreas, common on the 

 same bottoms in the Bay of Fundy ; several species of shrimp belonging 

 to the genera Hippolyte, Pandalus, &c. The bright red colors of all these 

 animals would certainly be very fatal to them were there no red algse 

 among which they could conceal themselves and thus escape, to a con- 

 siderable extent, from the voracious fishes, which are nearly always 

 ready to pounce upon them whenever they expose themselves. One or 

 two handsome species of ^Eolis (similar to fig. 174) were taken, but for 

 lack of opportunity they were not identified while living, and these soft 

 and delicate creatures cannot be preserved in alcohol so as to be identi- 

 fied afterwards with certainty. The handsome little Doto coronata 

 (Plate XXV, fig. 170) occurs occasionally on the hydroids, upon the 

 animals of which it feeds. This species is generally less than half an 

 inch in length. The body is pale yellowish, or salmon -color, or rosy, 

 specked with pink, light red, or dark red, which often forms a median 

 dorsal line toward the head j the curious papillose branchiae along the 

 back are pale orange, the lateral and terminal papill3 being tipped with 

 bright purplish red, dark red, or carmine, with a ring of flake-white 

 below the tip 5 the head and tentacles are pale and translucent. The 

 eggs are laid upon the hydroids, in long, flattened, and convoluted gelati- 

 nous strings, at various times during the early summer. 



Another curious and beautifully colored naked mollusk, the Polycera 

 Lessonii, also occurs occasionally on rocky bottoms, among hydroids and 

 bryozoa. In this species the body is pale flesh-color, or sometimes pale 

 orange, and thickly covered with bright, deep green specks, giving the 

 whole surface a green color ; along the back is a median line of tuber- 

 cles or papilla, and there are two other rows on each side, which extend 

 as far as the gills or a little beyond ; all these tubercles are tipped with 

 bright sulphur-yellow, except that the last ones of the lateral rows, 

 posterior to the gills, are usually tipped with flake- white, but these have 

 two or three irregular, lateral lobes, which are tipped with yellow; 

 other smaller, yellow tubercles are scattered over the back, sides, head, 

 and tail ; the tentacles are also bright yellow, but sometimes specked 

 with green and yellow, with yellow tips. The gills are three in number, 

 in a cluster on the middle line of the back, posteriorly ; each one is 

 bipinuate and delicately plumose ; they are colored similar to the back, 

 generally more or less specked with bright yellow, and often with flake- 

 white ; the tips are usually bright yellow. 



Another small but singular species, which also occurs among the hy- 

 droids, as well as among dead shells, is the Doridella obscura, (Plate 

 XXV, fig. 173;) in this the colors are not conspicuous, but seem rather 

 intended for its concealment. The back is sometimes light, yellowish 



