MYXINE, 517 
40 to 300 fathoms. It often lies buried with only the 
nostril protruding from the mud, but it can swim gracefully 
and rapidly in eel-like fashion in search of prey. : It eats 
the bait off the fisherman’s long: lines, and it also enters and 
devours the cod, etc., which have been caught on the hooks. 
According to some, the hag also bores its way into free- 
swimming fishes, but the evidence is not satisfactory. Ac- 
cording to Mr. J. T. Cunningham, the young animals are 
hermaphrodite, containing immature ova and ripe sper- 
matozoa, while older forms produce ova only. If the same 
form is first functionally a male and afterwards functionally 
a female, the term “protandrous hermaphroditism” is 
justified, and Nansen corroborated Cunningham’s dis- 
covery, which is, however, disputed by Bashford Dean. A 
somewhat similar “ protandrous” hermaphroditism is known 
elsewhere, eg. in the Nemertean Stichostemma eilhardit, in 
the aberrant AZyzostoma, and in the crustacean Cymothoide. 
Hag are said to spawnin lateautumn. Of the development 
and early history nothing is known. 
Porm, skin, and muscular system.—The body is eel- 
like; measuring 15 to 24 in. in the adult. The colour is 
pinkish, the red blood shining through an unpigmented 
skin. There is a slight median fin around the tail; beside 
the mouth and nostril there are four pairs of sensitive 
barbules. There are no paired fins. The cloacal opening 
is near the posterior end of the body. 
The skin is scaleless, and rich in goblet cells, which 
secrete mucus. There is also a double row of glandular 
pits, partly embedded in muscle, and arranged segmentally 
on each side of the ventral surface along its entire length. 
Each opens by a distinct pore, and so much mucus is rapidly 
secreted that the ancients said the hag “could turn water 
into glue.” This makes the hag difficult to grip, and its 
function is doubtless in part protective. The mucus chiefly 
consists of strange spiral threads which uncoil when ejected 
from the sacs. 
The zigzag muscle segments or myomeres are traceable. 
The rasping teeth are worked by a powerful muscular 
structure, sometimes called a “tongue.” A section 
of this shows a strong muscular cylinder surrounding a 
cartilage. 
