138 Miscellaneous. 



moment when the sphincter dilates to allow the escape of the wator 

 which has served for respiration, it heuds round quickly, and gliding 

 its slender tail along its body, passes it in an instant into the cloaca 

 of the Holothuria. This first step taken, the rest of the operation 

 may occupy more or less time. A small FUrasfer attacking a large 

 Holothuria sometimes succeeds in making an entrance at once. 

 But should there be any disproportion of size the parasite waits for 

 the respiratory stream to dilate the anus, and then pushes further in ; 

 and it is only by long-continued efforts that it finally enters. Prof. 

 Emery has seen as many as seven of these fish successively enter 

 the body of the same individual. 



The Fierasfer lodges at first in the respiratory tree of the Holo- 

 thuria, which opens into the intestine not far from the anus ; but it 

 is also found in the perivisceral cavity, because the respiratory tree 

 is most frequently torn by the eftbrts of the little fish, es}>ecially 

 wlien it receives several of them at the same time. The Fierasfer, 

 however, is not a true parasite feeding at the expense of its host, 

 but gets its nourishment from the sea by pushing its head out of the 

 Holothuria. The position of its anus, which is placed ver}' near the 

 head, also enables it to evacuate the faical matters and the sexual 

 products without quitting its domicile. 



This singular fish consequently makes use of the Holothuria as a 

 habitation, or as a refuge from its enemies. It is therefore what 

 we may call a commensal in the words of Van Beneden, or, as Prof. 

 Emerj' expresses it, a lodger-parasite (inquilinus). — R. Accacl. dei 

 Lincei, Atti, ser. 3, vol. vii. 18S0 ; Bibl. Ujiiv., Archives des Sciences, 

 December 15, 1881, p. 027. 



Mode of Capture of Lizards in Southern Europe. By Dr. T. Eimer. 



In my memoir on Lacerta mural is ca'ridea I described the peculiar 

 method, usual in Italy, by which the boys there catch lizards : they 

 make a noose at the end of a long stiff haulm of grass, and fill this 

 with saliva so as to appear like a shining mirror. They hold the 

 grass-haulm towards a lizard, which, being very inquisitive, 

 comes nearer and nearer in order to examine the apjiaratiis, and in 

 the midst of its curiosity easily allows the noose to be drawn over 

 its head. 



The celebrated statue of the Sauroctonus*, as is well known, 

 represents a youth, still of tender age, who, leaning with his left 

 arm upon the trunk of a tree, and holding in his right hand a piece 

 of a rod, in a watchful attitude follows with his eyes a lizard running 

 up the trunk of the tree, with the object, as the archaeologists think, 

 either of tickling or transfixing it with the above-mentioned rod, 

 as with a dart, a fragment of which the rod would represent. The 

 latter opinion, so far as I know, relates to the statement of Plinyf, 



* lavpoKTovos, lizard-killer. f Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 70. 



