SOUTH DEVON AND CORNWALL MARINE FAUNA AND FLORA. 275 



Rejiort of the Committee appomted to explore the Marine Fauna and 

 Flora of the South Coast of Devon and Cornwall. — No. 2. Consist- 

 ing of J. Gw\N Jefyueys, F.R.S., Rev. Thomas Hincks, Jonathan 

 CoucHj F.L.S., Charles Stewart, F.L.S., J. Brooking RowEj 

 F.L.S., and J. Ralfs, F.L.S. Reporter, C. Spence Bate, F.R.S. ^c. 



In presenting their Second Report, the Committee heg to state that their 

 eudeavonr has been, as much as possible, to direct their researches towards 

 the discovery of rare or new species, — to retake, upon the ground on Avhich 

 they were originally found, specimens similar to those that have been de- 

 scribed by Leach and Montagu, some of whose typical specimens have been 

 lost, misplaced, or destroyed. This is more tiiie in regard to the Crustacea 

 than perhaps of any otlier class of animals — a circumstance, when taken in 

 connexion with the curt descriptions of the animals given by the authors, 

 that materially interferes with the power of zoologists to pronounce with con- 

 fidence upon the relation that any fresh specimens may bear to those tyi^es. 



To carry out this plan as much as possible, we have du'ected our investiga- 

 tions hitherto mostly between Bigbury Bay toward the east, and the Dodman 

 toward the west. "S^^ithin these limits our dredging and trawling has been 

 mostly carried on within a distance of about twenty miles of the shore, and 

 in water that has not exceeded fifty fathoms in depth. 



Eisn.— As regards the obtaining of fish, the sweep of a dredge, Mr. Couch 

 says, is too limited to aiford a prospect of much success ; and our notes about 

 them can be but few. In shallow depths the Megrim or Scaldfish {Bhomhus 

 arnoghssus) was obtained in abundance ; but none were found at between 

 forty and fifty fathoms. At the latter depth the Launcelet and larger Launce 

 had lain biu'ied in the sand ; as regards the latter, it seems worthy of notice 

 that at this season the large abundance of its species have changed their 

 quarters so as to approach the shore, while at least in this one instance an 

 example has remained buried in its winter haunt. An observation made by 

 an intelligent fisherman may also be deserving of notice. It refers to the 

 habit of some small individuals of several kinds of fish seeking shelter within 

 the cavity of some of the larger species of medusfe. Very small Scads, Bibs, 

 and "Whiting Pollacks are often found thus attending on these medusa?, so as 

 to accompany them wherever they float ; and on the least alarm they have 

 recourse to the shelter thus off'ered to them ; so that on lifting one of these 

 creatures into the boat there were found concealed within the cavities no 

 less than sLrty-hvo young Scads — from which the question arises, As these 

 medusas are generally believed to come to us from a warmer region, may they 

 not be the means of conveying to us young fishes of rarer sorts, which other- 

 wise might not have visited us ? 



Among the rarer fishes which have come to our knowledge since our last 

 Report to the Meeting of the British Association, I may be permitted to 

 mention Ausonia cuvieri, of which an account is given in the Journal of the 

 Zoological Society, — and also what there is some reason to judge a distinct 

 species, to which the name has been assigned of A. coclsii. We have had 

 also the Scabbard fish {Lepidopus argyi-evs), which was found floating on 

 the surface near Falmouth, and also the Silvery hairtail (TricJiinrvs lep- 

 turits) taken in a drift-net near Penzance. 



MoLLTJSCA. — Bostellaria ijes-pelecani, in all stages of groAvth ; Psammobia 

 vespertina, Crassina danmomi, Cardium esinnah'm, C. hvigahm, Ccrithivm 

 lima, Acmaa virginea, from a trawl (but this example differs from the figure 



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