538 FAUNA NOTES FOR 1897. 



be seen through, the mantle ; but it was not till the specimens 

 had attained the length of 7 m.m. that the chromatophores 

 became visible. I was much interested to observe that on 

 accidentally stimulating an embryo at this stage with a needle 

 point, an immediate discharge of ink from the ink-sac followed ; 

 and that this experiment could be repeated with the same 

 results till the animal was exhausted. No changes of interest 

 could be observed with these embryos, other than a decrease in 

 the size of the yelk, and a corresponding increase in the size of 

 the mollusks till the 1 1th of September, when they began to 

 hatch out, the yelk by this time being quite absorbed. I tried 

 on several occasions to observe an individual free itself from its 

 capsule, but in no instance was I successful. The mollusks, it 

 was noticed, invariably gained their freedom by means of a slit 

 about 3 m.m. in length, which was always found just beneath 

 he far extremity of each capsule. Microscopical examination 

 shewed that the edges of each slit were very jagged, and so it 

 seems very probable that the jaws were used to make an exit 

 for the contained embryo. Three days later all my specimens 

 had hatched, and so one may conclude that an interval of 

 from sixty to seventy days must pass between the laying and 

 hatching of the capsules of Sepia officinalis. 



On the 30th of July, while collecting in the calm water 

 under the Eastern breakwater, I got a specimen of Sepiola 

 atlantica under rather interesting circumstances. On securing 

 a large mass of Fucus which was floating on the surface of the 

 sea, my attention was attracted by a small brown object near 

 the centre of the weed, which proved on closer examination to be 

 a specimen of this moUusk. 



Having never before found a cephalopod in such a singular 

 hiding place, I thought the capture worth recording. 



Pisces. A most brilliantly coloured specimen of Gobius 

 minutus was detected on my small oyster bed on the 17th of 

 March. I was examining my oysters on that morning, during 

 low-water, and while recovering some of the bivalves which had 

 sunk in the mud, I discovered a single oyster shell which had 

 sunk only a quarter of its length in the mud, and, concealed in a 

 small pool of water in front of the shell, was the above- 



