Mice 
gps 
ae 
794 General Notes. (July, 
mals, probably fish. Since then they have (through Mr, R.D. 
Derbyshire) been able to examine the contents of a stomach ofa 
haddock, which consisted of five fragments of V. mirabilis, and of 
these, three were “ actual perfect upper ends;’ as a possible ex- 
planation of this mutilation it is suggested that the apparent 
absence of stinging-cells from this species is not only apparent 
but real, so that the fish are enabled to bite at them with impu- 
nity. As the specimens examined were not in a thoroughly sat- 
isfactory condition for histological study, the question must be 
examined again with more satisfactory specimens. 
The evidence afforded by the dredging leads to the supposition 
already suggested by Richiardi and Kölliker, that Funiculina 
Jorbest, the supposed British species, is only the immature form 
of F. quadrangularis, which is well known from the Mediter- 
ranean. The most complete example from Oban is only thirty- 
nine inches long, but at Hamburg there is a stem eighty-nine 
inches in length. 
The foregoing notice has been taken from the Journal of the 
Royal Microscopical Society. Having received from the authors 
a copy of the book, we can bear testimony to the excellence of 
the plates. The authors quote Dalyell’s statement that Virgularia 
when in captivity “remains contracted during the greater part € 
the day, and the organs are seldom displayed before five or six 1 
the afternoon;” but the authors with more reason suggest that 
Pennatula appears to be “ nocturnal” when brought to the sur 
face, “simply because the amount of light it receives in broad 
daylight is vastly in excess of what it receives normally at 
sea bottom, and that it is only towards evening that it is placed 
under what to it are normal conditions‘as to amount of light. 
The authors are strongly in favor of the now generally accepted — 
view that Pennatula lives upright, planted in the sea bottom. 
As regards the phosphorescence observed in the majority of : 
the Pennatulida, P. phosphorea receiving its name from having MY 
property, the authors say: “ This was well seen in the E 
specimens while living; the more perfect female specimens whe! 
suspended in a jar of sea water in the -dark, and irrita 
whole surface of the feather in rapid irregular corru 
Panceri’s observations on this subject are adopted, and h 
presented at some length. 
HETEROGENETIC DEVELOPMENT IN DIAPTOMUS, ere, COR 
ollowing 
TIONS.— The editors kindly allow me space to make the 
emendations to the article entitled Heterogenetic Develo jer. 
Diaptomus, rendered necessary by an unfortunate loss of prom” 
the mail. d 
Cyclops pectinatus (p. 499) should have stood “C thomas 
ted or a : 
cited by gently brushing the leaves, exhibited a fine i o 
phosphorescence, the different polypes, when touched, show ie 7 
minute brilliant points of light which appeared to flash eo 3 
is views — 
