MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT POET ERIN. 77 



of fish spawning off Dalby would tend to be carried across 

 to the Irish Coast, while those of fish spawning in the 

 deep water on this eastern side of the Isle of Man would 

 go to supply the nurseries in the shallow Lancashire and 

 Cheshire bays, and very few would be carried altogether 

 out of the district. 



Other Faunistic Work. 



Mr. Arnold Watson writes as follows in regard to the 

 Annelids at which he is working : — " The most interesting 

 item is probably the capture by Mr. K. L. Ascroft, in 

 May last year, and subsequently at intervals, of larval 

 Pectinaria in the waters near Blackpool. The specimens 

 were taken with a tow-net attached to the beam of a 

 trawl, and show that in the first instance the animal 

 secretes a minute free tube of organic matter of somewhat 

 cellular appearance. This tube is about ~ of an inch 

 long, y^o of an inch in its widest diameter, tapering to 

 about 2-J0 at the narrow end. To the wider end of this 

 membranous tube the worm attaches very minute grains 

 of sand, course after course, forming a sand tube about 

 ¥ V of an inch in external diameter. The length of the 

 larval worm from tip of tail to the outer margin of the 

 minute headbristles, or combs, is about — of an inch. 

 Last spring Mr. Ascroft was good enough to send me some 

 living specimens of these larvae which, for a few days, 

 survived their journey, and were very active. At this 

 stage of the animal's existence a pair of eye-spots are 

 visible. He also sent me in March last, for identification, 

 a specimen of Autolytus alexandri (with its egg sac) 

 taken by surface tow-netting in the daytime off the 

 Bahama Light Ship, near Kamsey, Isle of Man. Hornell 

 recorded in 1892 a male specimen of this worm taken by 

 tow-netting off Puffin Island, which was the first recorded 

 from British waters." 



