St. Andrews Marine Laboratory. 103 



the coast of New Guinea and in the southern Pacific *. The 

 " houses " were a serious impediment to the use of the mid- 

 water net at St. Andrews, and the empty ones frequently- 

 formed a tliick coating on the surface of the lai'ge jars in the 

 laboratory, probably because bubbles of air had been mixed 

 with them. 



Prof. Herdman tells me that the examples from St. An- 

 drews are as large and fine as those procured by the ' Chal- 

 lenger,' and he identifies the species with "Oikoplem-a copho- 

 cerca.''^ The beautiful outlines of the Appendicularid (a 

 generic name which I agree with Prof. Huxley should be 

 preferred to the Oikopleura of Mertens) in life, however, 

 differ considerably from Gegenbaur's figures of his species f. 

 More recent authors have in all probability improved in this 

 respect. 



5. On the Occurrence of Clione borealis, Pallas. 



The use of the mid- water net on the 11th and 12th April 

 and for a week or two subsequently brought to the labora- 

 tory a considerable number of active specimens of Clione 

 horealis, Pallas. They generally came from a depth of 4 

 fathoms in from 6 to 8 fathoms water. This Pteropod alto- 

 gether escaped notice in the far-reaching dredging-excursions 

 of the late esteemed Dr. Gwyn Jefi'reys^ who searched the 

 British seas more thoroughly than any other in recent times, 

 and on this account therefore its presence is the more note- 

 worthy and an agreeable surprise to Mr. Prince and myself. 

 Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys states, under the group Gymnosomata \^ 

 " The only member of this order which seems to have been 

 observed on the British coasts is Clione papiUonacea of Pallas 

 [Clio horealisj Brugui^re,= Clio retusa, Miiller andFabricius), 

 a native of the Arctic Seas, and partly the reputed food of the 

 true whale. Dr. Leach says that during a tour to the Ork- 

 neys (query Hebrides?) in 1811 he found several mutilated 

 specimens on the rocks, and succeeded in capturing one alive 

 while rowing along the coast of Mull. Dr. Morch reminds 

 me that in the ' Isis ' for 1823 (ii. p. 459) Oken mentions a 

 specimen in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes from 

 Falmouth, and that Faber noticed this mollusk as found in 

 the Cattegat at Lesso.'" 



Notliing could exceed the beauty of these Pteropods and 

 the interest excited by their movements. The general mass 



* Phil. Trans. 1851, part ii. p. 598. 



t Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. vi. p. 408, Taf. xvi. figs. 1-6 (1861). 



I Brit. Concliology, y. p. 121. 



