36 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



the type, but are so much worn as to be utterly useless as 

 a specific character. When examined under a compound 

 lens, the body appears to be minutely scabrous; but this 

 is true of the M'Murdo Bay specimens, though in a less 

 pronounced and varying degree. 



While at the Natural History Museum in London, my 

 friend Dr W. T. Caiman drew my attention to a communi- 

 cation by James Eights, M.D., to the Boston Journal of 

 Natural History, vol. i., 1837, concerning a certain Decalopoda 

 australis. On looking up the paper, I at once recognised 

 the species as identical with that taken by the Scottish 

 Expedition. Eights' description, generic and specific, is 

 here republished verbatim, and my own, which is taken 

 from the recently-captured specimens from the South 

 Orkneys, follows and is at greater length. 



"Genus Decalopoda. 



" Thorax. Elliptical, composed of five segments, separated 

 from each other by slightly impressed articulations ; anterior 

 one produced into a head-like process. Contracted behind, 

 and having on its superior surface a sub-conic tubercle with 

 two eyes placed on each side ; segments terminated at each 

 extremity by a tubular joint, to which are attached ten 

 perfect legs. Rostrum longer than the thorax, tubular, 

 clavate, arcuated downward, with a triangular aperture at 

 its apex ; inserted into the anterior portion of the head-like 

 process below. Ghelicercc rather longer than the rostrum, 

 inserted on each side of its base, above, bi-articulate, and 

 terminated by a forceps composed of a finger and thumb, 

 much curved, and meeting only a short distance along their 

 tips, the superior finger alone movable. Palpi setaceous, 

 ten-jointed, longer than the rostrum, inserted beneath the 

 chelicerse. Egg-hearing organs attached to a process at the 

 base of the palpi, ten-jointed, with a terminal incurved 

 nail. Legs cylindrical, composed of a three-jointed coxa, 

 one-jointed femur, and a two-jointed tibia and tarsus, the 

 latter terminated by a simple, slightly curved claw. Abdo- 

 men ? attached to the posterior segment of the thorax by a 



