o 



06 Miscellanea. [Vol. II, 



July the eggs contained embrj^os ready or nearly ready to break 

 loose as free larv£e, which alread}^ have external rudiments of fore 

 limbs. The exact stage at which the larvae emerge seems to differ 

 slightl}^ in different individuals. 



As regards Mr. Hodgart's statement that the newts are able to 

 draw blood by means of their tails from the hand of a captor, I can 

 only say that I failed to observe anything of the kind. The tail is 

 to some extent prehensile, and is curled round the finger when the 

 animal is held in the hand. In the living female the ridge at the 

 base of the tail is soft, only becoming hard when the animal is dead 

 and has been preserved in formxalin. 



N. Annandale. 



FISH. 



The occurrence of Rhinodon typicus at the head of the 

 Bay of Bengal.— A specimen of this rare basking shark was re- 

 cently caught by Captain Gorr of the Pilot's Ridge light vessel 

 at the mouth of the River Hooghly, and presented to the Museum 

 by Mr. W. L. Allnut. 



The measurements of the freshly caught nsh were as follows :-- 



' ' Length from nose to tip of tail 

 Round the head 



,, ,, stomach 

 Across the nose 



,, mouth 



The specimen was harpooned at the surface, over 26^ fathoms 

 of water (Lat. 20° 51' 30" N., Long. 87° 52' o" E.), on March 23rd. 



The colour of the skin was dark bluish grey with large, irregu- 

 lar paler blotches. The teeth were very small and numerous, each 

 consisting of a single recurved cusp. They were arranged in a band 

 on the upper and lower jaw, each band extending nearly to the 

 angles of the mouth. Each band contains about 350 rows of teeth, 

 each row consisting of about 10 teeth, making about 7,000 in all. 



Although the shark has been recorded from Ceylon and Java, 

 this appears to be the first time it has been met with in the upper 

 parts of the Bay of Bengal. 



R. E. Lloyd, Capt., IMS. 



SPONGES. 



Note on Ephydatia meyeni (Carter). — On page 272, vol. i 

 of these '' Records," it is stated that the presence of vesicular cells 

 in the parenchyma is a recognized character distinguishing Ephy- 

 datia fluviatilis from E. miilleri, and the conclusion is drawn that 

 E. meyeni, Carter, is a variety of the former species. This is a seri- 

 ous error, as exactly the contrary is the case. The note was printed 

 during my absence from India, and a printer's error or lapsus calami 

 crept in whereby "fluviatilis" was printed for " miillen." The 



Eeet. 



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