DUBLIN NATT7EAL HISTOET SOCIETY. 45 



irides are reddish. It spawns and perfects its young in July. I regret 

 that I could not obtain for the meeting recent specimens, to have ex- 

 hibited the interesting novelty, certainly first detected and described 

 by Dr. Corrigan, of the manner in which the fish, in feeding, exercises a 

 power for the inflating of the pouch or gullet, and the expansion of the 

 jaw and mouth. I was aware of the singular manner of the distending 

 of the throat and mouth of the Dori/, Zeus faber in receiving its food, and 

 of singular peculiarities in Centriscus, and in the Capros aper, but the 

 power in the Syngnathus appears altogether new, and seems analogous 

 to the peculiarity in the vesicular inflation exercised by the hyoid bone 

 in the howling monkeys, which commrmicates with the larynx, and pro- 

 duces the sound which gives the appellation to the animal. It is quite 

 obvious how necessary are practical investigations in the living state to 

 arrive at any accuracy in the characteristic habits of animals, and hence 

 have resulted the observation of Dr. Corrigan. I should have mentioned 

 that I have noticed S. cequoreus greedily stripping the stems of Zostera 

 tnarma of the young of Anthea cereus, which were attached in a semi- 

 glutinous state. 



Specimens of the different species from Ventry and Dingle Harbour 

 were exhibited. 



Mr. E. Callwell observed that whilst the Syngnathidge were under 

 discussion, it was a suitable time to observe that some years ago, 1849, 

 he obtained a recent specimen of the S. hippocampus, which was found 

 on the ISforth Bull, Dublin. His friend, the late "William Thompson, 

 being with him soon after, at his request the specimen was lent to him 

 for the purpose of exhibition. Mr. Thompson's death occiu'red before 

 the restoration of the specimen. Mr. Callwell's reason for alluding to 

 it was because, as far as he could learn, this was the first instance of 

 the Hippocampus hrevirostris being found recent on our coast. What 

 became of the specimen, Mr. Callwell was unaware, but he had intended 

 it for the Museum of the Societ3^ 



Professor Kinahan communicated to the Meeting a list of rare marine 

 animals, captured by liim in Dublin, chiefly dui'ing the late low tides. 

 Of these, at Sandycove, in the extreme laminarian zone, he had met 

 Galathea squamifera, very abundant ; Filumnus hirtellus, do., do. ; Niha 

 edulis, a single specimen, as Irish previously only recorded in Galway. 

 In all, twenty-three species of stalk-eyed Crustacea occurred in a very 

 limited locality. Among the other groups he communicated that uaterest- 

 ingjlolothuriad, Synapta inh(Bfens (Muller), Chirodota Montagui {Forles). 

 The earhest notice of this species, under its proper name, was that re- 

 corded in Thompson's " Irish Fauna," vol. iv., page 443, as having been 

 obtained ia March, 1843, by Mrs. W. J. Handcock, at Balbriggan, county 

 of ])ublin. The species is also recorded [ih. p. 444), under Porbes' name, 

 as having been obtained at Carrickfergus, December, 1843. Messrs. 

 Woodward and Barrett, in their recent monograph on the genus 

 Synapta in the " Annals of Natiu-al History," have totally overlooked the 

 former of these notices, although it Avas published in 1856. Dr. 



