202 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



seas. It has received its popular name of cotton-spinner 

 from its unpleasant property of emitting from the cloaca, 

 when irritated, its cuvierian organs in the form of a num- 

 ber of white sticky threads of great strength, tenacity, and 

 extensibility. Prof. Jeffrey Bell, to whose kindness I am 

 indebted for my information, found that one of these 

 threads on exposure to water elongated twelve-fold and 

 swelled up to seven times its original diameter ; it would 

 then become exceedingly attenuated and elongated, and 

 stick to everything it came in contact with, but was so 

 strong that six such threads would hold up a weight of 

 from 800 to 1000 grains. 



On account of this peculiarity, the "nigger" is greatly 

 detested by the Cornish crab and lobster fishermen, 

 as they find their lobster pots besmeared with its sticky 

 threads. Mrs. Fisher (Miss Arabella Buckley) has given 

 in " Nature " (June 26, 1884, p. 193) an account of her 

 experiences with a Mediterranean specimen which she 

 had dredged, and which cast some of its threads at her 

 hands. My own experience with the present specimen 

 from Inishbofin was very much the same. A few seconds 

 after picking it up it began to eject the white threads, 

 and very soon I felt them sticking to my skin and 

 joining my fingers together in a most unpleasant manner. 

 The remains of the threads and the sticky feeling were 

 difficult to get rid of afterwards. Prof. Bell, who exhibited 

 this specimen at a meeting of the Zoological Society of 

 London on Nov. 18th, remarks that it is specially inter- 

 esting, as it has entangled itself in its own threads.* The 

 threads are usually regarded as organs of offence and 

 defence. This holothurian is supposed to live at a depth 

 of from 10 to 20 fathoms, and has always been taken 



* For further information see Bell, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1884, pp. 372 and 

 563; also Nature, June 12, 1884, p. 146, June 26, p. 193, and Aug. 7, p. 335. 



