MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 25 



congregated together, not directly under the food, but about 

 3 inches to one side of it. At 10.30 a.m. six of them moved to 

 a point underneath it, and raised their arms towards the 

 surface of the water as if searching for it. As it appeared to be 

 out of their reach it was lowered J inch. Shortly afterwards 

 one of them touched it with the extreme tip of one of its 

 arms. Taking two or three turns of the tip of the arm around 

 the bit of food the animal hauled itself up until the food was 

 within reach of its mouth. A few seconds later a second speci- 

 men hauled itself up by the disengaged arms of the first, and 

 this was quickly followed by a third. Both insinuated their 

 arms between those of the first, and persistently tried to obtain 

 possession of the food. Finding their efforts vain, they even- 

 tually dropped to the bottom of the tank. At 10.45 a.m. the 

 food had been swallowed and disengaged from the thread 

 by the first specimen. 



" On Monday, July 3rd, the Assistant Curator called atten- 

 tion to a large number of specimens of Aplysia punctata which 

 he had noticed on the beach, between tide marks, in the 

 neighbourhood of the old Biological Station. The spot was 

 immediately visited by the Curator, who found a considerable 

 area of the beach thickly strewn with decaying sea-weeds, 

 presumably thrown ashore during the prevalence of a fresh 

 westerly breeze on the previous Saturday evening. Mixed up 

 with the weed were hundreds of Aplysias, many of them 

 4 to 5 inches in length. At several points the Curator picked 

 up six in the area of a square foot. Having been exposed to 

 the warm sunshine for several hours many appeared to be 

 lifeless when picked up, but from 80 to 90 specimens taken 

 at random revived when put into fresh sea-water. No trace 

 of this great incursion was to be seen two days later. 



(Signed) H. C. Chadwick." 



