MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 241 



Cannophysa filiformis- 



Plate III. Fig. 3. 



Another species of Cannophysa, closely allied to the preceding and identified 

 as G. filiformis (Plate III. Fig. 3), was taken from the Gulf Stream near Ha- 

 vana. The differences between this species and C Eysenhardtii are best seen 

 by comparing the figures of Plate III. with one another. The pneumatophore 

 of G. filiformis is pear-shaped instead of spherical. The feeding polyps are more 

 triangular in cross-section, and the secondary filaments of the tasterns end in large 

 bulb-like swellings, the entoderm of which exhibits cumulous masses of dark 

 purple pigment. The single specimen which was captured came up clinging 

 to the wire rope of the Tanner net when only 36 feet of this rope had been 

 drawn in. It is indeed remarkable that this species of a family which Haeckel 

 considers so characteristic of the deep sea should have been found swimming 

 within 36 feet of the surface. The animal was in an excellent state of preser- 

 vation, and on being placed in a high glass vessel full of sea-water, it discharged 

 several bubbles of gas from the pneumato-sac, and then slowly sank to the bot- 

 tom. The creature was highly sensitive to disturbances of the water, and any 

 shock which was given to the vessel caused it to contract into a closely wound 

 helix. When undisturbed it would stretch itself out into a filament of enor- 

 mous length, bearing its bunches of feeding polyps and tasterns. Doubtless 

 it floats in this expanded condition at various depths in the ocean, sometimes 

 approaching within a few feet of the surface, and at others sinking to an 

 unknown depth, although it has probably its bathymetrical limits. 



