4998 Fishes—Crustacea. 



The "Sea-Snake Story a Fiction. — In the November number of the 'Zoologist' 

 (Zool. 4896) I notice an extract from an American paper, respecting the capture of 

 the " great American snake." You have probably since learned that the account is an 

 unmitigated hoax, manufactured by a newspaper editor, while on a summer vacation, 

 for the purpose of furnishing material for his editorial correspondence. — Spencer F. 

 Baird ; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, U.S., December 28, 1855. 



The supposed New Flounder. — Mr. Higgins is very fearful that it may be supposed 

 by some readers of my note in the December number (Zool. 4914) that he has been a 

 particeps criminis in the experiments there described as having been performed on the 

 poor little flouuders by the unfeeling fisher boys. I am confident that ray correspon- 

 dent's enthusiastic love of Natural History ought to and will protect him from any 

 such suspicion. I cannot see how such a malversation of meaning can occur to any 

 one. T may say that having again communicated with Mr. Higgins and Mr. Yarrell 

 on the subject, the former still believes it distinct as a species, the latter still believes 

 it a variety of the common flounder. — Edward Newman. 



Antennce of the Prawn. — In the January number of the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 4968), 

 under the Proceedings of the Entomological Society, there is a note read by Mr. New- 

 man as ' A fact bearing on the Function of Antennae.' In this note the following 

 lines occur : — " Milne-Edwards considers the shorter or inner pair (of antennae) as 

 auditory organs:" .... "But Mr. Spence Bate, in a paper lately published in the 

 'Annals' (No. 91, dated July) attempts exactly to reverse this theory, contending, at 

 great length, that the long exterior antennae are auditory, the shorter ones olfac- 

 tory," &c. What is here placed to the account of Milne-Edwards should have been 

 given to Mr. Spence Bate, and vice versa. That this is the case the following passage 

 from Vol. I. of the ' Histoire Naturelle des Crustaces,' p. 124, will show: — " Chez la 

 Langouste, le milieu de la membrane qui bouche l'ouverture externe du tubercule 

 auditif, est occupe par une ouverture qui communique avec l'organ en forme de 

 galette, dont il vient d'etre question, et chez la plupart des Brachyures elle est 

 remplacee en totalite par un petit disque osseux plus ou moius mobile. Dans le 

 Maia et quelques autres Crustaces a courte queue, la disposition de cette espece 

 d'opercule est ties curieux (pi. 12, fig. 10*), nous avons constate, M. Audouin et moi, 

 que de son bord anterieur il nait une lame osseuse assez large"; qui s'en seperan a 

 angle droit, se dirige en haut vers l'organ, en forme de galette, et se termine 

 en pointe ; pres de sa base, ce prolongement lamelleux est perce par un grand ouverture 

 ovalaire, et cette espece de fenetre est bouchee par une membrane mince et 

 elastique, que nous appellerons la membrane auditive interne, et pres de la quelle le 



nerf auditif parait se terminer; du tubercule auditif, et qui, par sa forme, 



rapeller un peu I'etrier de loreille humane." Again, p. 125, " L'existence de la longue 

 tige rigide, formee par les antennes de la seconde paire et en communication avec 

 Vorgan auditif, parait etre une autre circonstance de nature a faciliter la perception 

 des sons ; cette opinion avait deja ete eraise par M. Strauss et nous parait s'accorder 

 tres-bien avec divers resultats obtenus par M. Savait,'' Sec. In the paper to which 

 you refer as published in the ' Annals' by myself the following passage occurs : — " The 



* Here Milne-Edwards figures the organ belonging to the external antenna. 



