of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 307 



Habitat. — Attached to the eye of a sprat (?) in one of the Leith 

 dry docks. One day in August last year, my son (John Scott) ob- 

 served in one of the Leith dry docks (one of the two belonging to 

 the Leith Dock Commission), from which the water was being pumped 

 out, a parasite adhering to the eye of a young herring or sprat — 

 one of a small shoal that had entered the dock while the gates were 

 open — which, from his description, appears to belong to this species. 

 'The parasite,' he says, 'had a long slender body, and long ovisacs.' 

 The eye to which the parasite was attached appeared to be blind, for 

 on one occasion he reached out his hand so close to the fish as almost 

 to touch it. As he was about to lay hold of the fish it happened to 

 turn so as to see his hand, and instantly darted off. A considerable 

 number of the fish were left dead after the water was pumped out of 

 the dock, but he failed to find among them the one with the parasite 

 — it had probably been carried out with the water (as many of the 

 other fish were) that had been pumped from the dock. Lemeonema 

 spratta seems to be very rare in the Forth, although I have 

 examined hundreds of sprats, I have failed to observe a single specimen 

 of the parasite. So far as my son can remember, the body of the 

 parasite he saw was of a greenish colour. He and others saw the fish 

 with the parasite attached swimming about for a considerable time 

 before the water was all pumped out of the dock, but ultimately lost 

 sight of it. 



LERNEO CERAD.E. 



Lerncea branchialis, Linne. 



1767. Lemma branchialis i 'Systema Naturae,' edit. 12th. 



1850. Lernwa branchialis, Baird, loc. cit., p. 344, pi. xxxv. fig. 12. 



Habitat. — Attached to the gills of the cod, haddock, and whiting. 

 Frequent on such fish taken by us in the Forth, mostly on fish in 

 poor condition, sometimes so many are adhering to the gills, that the 

 gill-covers are kept from closing because of them. 



The parasitic Copepoda are an interesting group, and doubtless play an 

 important part in the economy of nature. Dr Baird's work, which I have 

 mainly followed in the preceding notes, is the only monograph we have 

 on the British species, though several records have since been published 

 through scientific societies and otherwise. 



OSTRACODA. 



Cytherid^s. 



Cythere gibbosa, Brady and Robertson. 



1869. Cythere gibbosa, Brady and Robertson, ' Ann. and Mag. 



Nat. Hist.,' ser. iv., vol. iii. p. 368, pi. xxi. figs. 1-3. 

 1889. Cythere gibbosa, Brady and Norman, ' Mon. M. and F.-W. 



Ostrac. of the N. Atlantic and N.-W. Europe,' p. 136, pi. 



xiv. figs. 30, 31. 



Habitat. — Brackish pools at the mouth of the Cocklemill Burn, Largo 

 Bay; obtained July 12, 1890; frequent. This is very much a brackish- 

 water species. It has been recorded from localities more or less purely 

 marine. It would be interesting to know if specimens from such locali- 

 ties were living ; those now recorded were so. 



