THE EUNCINA.. 193 



The principal object in the accompanying Plate, is 

 an expanded specimen of the Plumose Anemone 

 f Actinia dianthusj of the white variety, attached to 

 an oyster-shell. In the front is a group of Serpula con 

 tortuplicata, wi^h their cork-like opercula protrudedj 

 and their scarlet fans expanded. They are seated on 

 a Scallop fPecten opercularisj ; from which also 

 springs a frond of the exquisitely delicate Nitofhi^l- 

 lum punctatum. Behind the Anemone are some 

 tufts of the Sea-grass {Zostera marina). 



EUNCINA HANCOCKI. 



On the 17th of September, I took this little MoUusk 

 by hundreds on the Zostera left dry at low spring-tide, 

 below Sandsfoot Castle. In raking the edges of the 

 grass in the shallow pools with a ring-net, the little 

 black shining Nudibranchs were left on the cloth. 

 Some were of much larger size than mentioned by 

 Forbes and Hanley, being fully a quarter of an inch 

 long when crawhng, while others were of various 

 degrees of minuteness, down to half a line. When 

 contracted, out of water, they presented a close resem- 

 blance to a glossy beetle,, a Gyrinus for example, but 

 in crawling the body was considerably elongated. 



In the Aquarium they are fond of crawling up the 

 side perpendicularly till they reach the surface, when 

 they float back-downward, or more generally let go, 

 bend in the foot, and drop at once to the bottom. 



THE FIDDLER. 



Beneath a large flat stone, exposed at extreme low 

 water, at the extremity of one of the low rough ledges 



s 



