Browne — Fauna atid Flora of Valencia Harbour, Ireland. 699 



In Tables I. and II. the Medusae are recorded for each day on 

 ■whicL. the tow-net was used. The species are arranged according to 

 the dates of capture ; and by the use of figures and symbols an attempt 

 has been made to couTey an idea of their abundance. 



Table III. — This series contains the results of the tow-nettings 

 and the observations of the Misses Delap, extending from October, 

 1896, to December, 1898. To make this table more useful for the 

 comparison of one year with another, I have added to it my own 

 records for July, August, and September, 1896, so that the Medusae 

 of three summers are shown. The table is arranged on a different 

 plan from the first two ; it is simply a monthly record of the species 

 present in the harbour, and the quantity is mentioned in the notes on 

 the different species. 



The order of the species is arranged on nearly the same plan as in 

 the previous tables. The species which usually make their first appear- 

 ance early in the year and during the spring are placed at the top of 

 the table, followed by the regular summer forms, the rarer species 

 being placed towards the bottom. The Medusae on the upper half of 

 the table may be regarded as the common annual inhabitants of the 

 harbour. 



There is a conspicuous blank for the winter months of 1897-8, 

 owing to the scarcity of tow-nettings, mainly due to the bad weather 

 so common on that coast in winter time. A special effort was made 

 for December, 1898, as I particularly wanted to find out more about 

 the occurrence of Medusae during the winter months. I received eight 

 tow-nettings taken on eight different days in the month by the local 

 ferryman, James Higgins, tmder the directions of the Misses Delap, 

 but found only one Medusa. The month was notorious for gales, and 

 the contents of the tow-net chiefly consisted of broken algae and Cope- 

 pods. 



The great decrease of Medusae during October, and especially in 

 I^ovember is, I am inclined to think, chiefly due to the heavy seas 

 off that coast during the autumn gales. The first gale in the autumn 

 plays great havoc with the pelagic fauna. I noticed this myself after 

 a gale with a heavy sea at the end of September in 1896 ; and a tow- 

 netting taken after the first gale in October, 1898, was full of the 

 remains of Solmaris and other delicate animals. 



The tow-nettings taken in the autumn contain young and imma- 

 ture stages of several species of Medusae, including Lar sahellarum, 

 PMaliclium cymlaloideum^ Tiara pileata, which one would expect to be 

 found during the winter months, but these forms either completely 



U.I.A. PEOC, SER. ni., VOL. V. 3 c 



