Putnam.] 182 [Nov. 5' 



From these descriptions it will be seen that these four specimens 

 exhibit two forms, or extremes of variation: one being elongated with 

 a tendency to a long dorsal fin, and the other shorter, with a tend- 

 ency to a short dorsal fin. It will also be noticed that the number 

 of lingual teeth is not constant, and that we cannot consider the 

 variation in their number of any specific value. 



On examining the many specimens from Grand Menan, contained 

 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, I found that while the short 

 form and the long form were to a certain extent recognizable, yet 

 there were several specimens intermediate in some one or more of the 

 characters, and that the two forms could only be . regarded as varie- 

 ties exhibiting the extremes of variation in the species. 



On reducing the few measurements which Girard gives in his de- 

 scription of M. limosa to the relative proportions of parts, it will be 

 seen that his description was taken from an elongated specimen, and 

 as the only character given by Giinther by which his slender speci- 

 men, described under the name of M. affinis, could be distinguished 

 rom M. limosa is the number of teeth, 1 we are forced to consider 

 M. affinis as a synonyme of the variety first described by Girard. 



On comparing the specimens from the English coast with the short 

 form from Grand Menan, I could find no difference between them. 



I then made a thorough study of the two hundred specimens of 

 various sizes collected by the Hassler Expedition in the Straits of 

 Magellan, and found that it was impossible on any character to sepa- 

 rate them from the northern representatives of the species. 



The following table, giving the measurements of a number of the 

 specimens from each locality, the number of teeth, and the relative 

 proportions of the head, abdomen and tail, will best exhibit the facts. 



After dissecting between forty and fifty specimens of Myxine, I 

 have been unable to find a single one that was unquestionably a male. 

 All but two of the number dissected (and in the majority of the 

 specimens not opened the eggs could be felt by pressing on the walls 

 of the abdomen) had eggs in a more or less advanced stage. In 

 many specimens the eggs were quite large, in others they were 

 smaller; in others again they were quite small, and the ovary was 



1 Girard states that the teeth in his specimen were seven in each row, but as I 

 have never found less than eight I am inclined to think that Girard overlooked the 

 small tooth at the end of each row. Giinther gives the teeth of his M. affinis as 

 eleven. I have shown that the number varied in the elongated specimens alone, 

 as described above, from eight to eleven. 





