270 NOTES ON THE FAUNA OF FALMOUTH. 



it into two portions. When first discovered the fish struggled for 

 some moments before it was able to free itself from the eggs. 

 This point seemed to me of some interest, for it at once 

 suggested the question : "Do both sexes share in protecting the 

 eggs?" I made a careful dissection of six specimens of 0. 

 gunnellus which were found coiled round the eggs, and in every 

 instance found them to be females. Two specimens of this fish 

 were found on two separate occasions securely hidden and coiled 

 round their eggs in the hollow interior of a root of Laminaria 

 bulbosa. This weed is to be found in abundance on the vertical 

 rocks in the neighbourhood of Trefusis Point, and is left dry 

 during low-water spring tides. These roots afford shelter to 

 numerous crabs, various species of Polyzoa, and other forms of 

 interest. The water here is deep, the rocks extending vertically 

 some two or more fathoms before the sea bottom is reached, so 

 these fish must have some considerable free swimming powers. 



Quite a number of Monk-fish (Squatina angelus) were 

 caught on this section of the coast during the spring in the 

 trammels set by crabbers. From one trammel alone I saw no 

 less than six specimens removed. Three of these specimens I 

 assisted to clean for baiting crabpots, and on dissection two fish 

 were found to contain fully developed young, which when placed 

 in the sea at once swam away. This species must be very 

 prolific, for one female had nine, the other twelve fully developed 

 young in the uterus. 



Note. On the 15th of August, 1895, I placed about 500 

 cement-coated tiles in St. Just Creek, and as soon as they were 

 arranged, numbers of various species of nudibranch moUusca, 

 crabs, small conger, and other forms of life immediately took 

 shelter underneath them. 



The following notes relating to the growth of the under- 

 mentioned animals may be of interest, for as far as I can 

 discover, but few investigators have paid much attention to this 

 subject. 



On the 3rd of the following April, numerous examples of 

 Anomia ephippium, varying in diameter from 5-7 m.m,, were 

 noted. Large growths of Botryllus ? were abundant, and 



