284 KEPORT— 1867. 



small, pointed, and not ciliated. Second pair of pereiopoda having the pro- 

 podos as long and nearly as broad as the carapace. Dactylos of the right 

 hand with the cutting margin convex and simple, on the left hand less convex 

 and cuneated. Posterior pair of pleopoda with the posterior external angle of 

 the outer ramus dentated, the inner tooth being the longest. Telson armed 

 with four lateral dorsal spines, and tipped with a few spines and hairs. 



"We have taken several specimens of Nilri ; and from their general resem- 

 blance to N. coucMi, while possessing the channelled telson of N. edulis, so 

 particularly pointed out by Bell as a specific distinctive test, we are much 

 inclined to believe that there is but a single British species yet knovra, 

 and that N. couc?ui is but a variety of N. edulis, Eisso. An examination of 

 its parts in detail has shown us that the mandibula (PI. III. fig. 3) is formed 

 on a plan that nearer associates the genus with that of Crangon than with 

 Alpheus, in the family of which, the latter being the type (Alpheid^), Nilca 

 is placed by M. -Edwards and Bell, while Dana, more correctly we think, has 

 placed it in a subfamily of the CRANGONiniE, the Ltsmatin^. 



Two or three specimens of Athanas nitescetis have been taken off Polperro. 



Hippohjte barleei, which was described by us from a Shetland specimen 

 several years ago, must, we think, be expunged from the list of species, since, 

 as pointed out by the Rev. A. M. Norman some time since, it is only an 

 accidental variety of IT. cranchii. Our observations of the Stomapoda have 

 been limited to a few of the commoner species ; whether this arises from the 

 species not being abundant on our southern shores as compared with those 

 on the northern, or from accidental causes, attributable to our collecting- 

 arrangements, is yet to be determined. 



Amongst the smaller'crustacea there is little to which we should wish to draw 

 special attention, except that we have recently taken what may prove to be 

 an undescribed Antlmra, and to some observations on the structure of Tanais. 



In 1861 Van Bcneden asserted that the proper place of the genus Tanais 

 was near to that of the family of the Diastiflidcr, because the cephalon was 

 developed upon the type of the carapace of the Decapoda. In 1864 this 

 opinion was followed by Dr. Fritz Miiller, who stated that though he had 

 been unable to identify branchial appendages, yet he felt assured that it 

 possessed rudimentary organs, because he had observed a current of water 

 playing from beneath the carapace. Eecently having obtained some living 

 specimens, we have been able to support Dr. Pritz MiiUer's conclusion relative 

 to the current of water ; for by the assistance of transmitted light we have 

 been able through the walls of the carapace to see the branchial appendage 

 waving to and fro ; we have since dissected out the organ, a drawing of 

 which accompanies this Eeport (Plate III. fig. 5, 7(). 



EcHiNODEKMATA. — Mr. Couch, reporting on the Echinodermata, says : — "We 

 have taken Ecliinus sphcera, E. miliaris, Echinociiamus pusillus, Spatangus 

 purpureus, Ampliidotus o'oseus, small examples of Palmipes memhranaeeus, 

 Astenas aurantiaca, A. glacialis, Porania pidvillea (by far the most beautiful, 

 in splendour and variety of colour, of all our native starfishes, and also the 

 scarcest; the colours are liable to variation in diff'erent individuals), Luidia 

 fragilissima, Ophiocoma Jilifonnis. 



There was a time when the flexible species of corals were in abundance on 

 the rather hard and what fishermen, from its being free from large stones 

 and rocks, term clean ground ; but this for the most part has been swept 

 doubly clean by trawling; and the shelter of these corals and the lower 

 animals Avhich grew among them, which in\'ited fish to seek it for spawning, 

 and also afi'orded refuge especially to the young fish, is destroyed, on which 

 account very little of these corals was seen. From a fisherman's hook, how- 



