﻿56 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



TUNICATA. 



The Ascidians or Sea-squirts, which form a sort of 

 stepping-stone between the Invertebrata and the Vertebrata 

 were a neglected group till Professor Herdman commenced 

 to study them, when Dr Leslie and he were preparing their 

 Catalogue of Firth of Forth Invertebrates, published in 

 1881. The number recorded in that Catalogue is 20, and the 

 authors anticipated that further investigations would add 

 largely to the list. Few further records appear, however, 

 to have been published. Mr F. G. Pearcey, in his paper in 

 the Transactions of the Glasgow Natural History Society 

 (vol. vi., U.S., part 2), mentions a few species, among 

 them being Ascidia mentida, 0. F. Mull. — which is an 

 addition to the list — from several stations in the Forth. An 

 Oiko'pleiira {0. dioica, Fol. doubtless) is, Dr Scott tells me, 

 at times frequent in the Firth. Under the name of 

 Appendicularia it will be found entered on a number of 

 occasions in the Fishery Board's records of observations 

 made on board the "Garland" during 1892 and 1893 (cf 

 11th and 12th Eeports, part iii.). It occurred during the 

 summer months, and chiefly in the bottom tow-net. There 

 is no evidence of Salpa ever having reached the Forth. 



Seeing the Firth of Clyde can boast of 50 species of 

 Tunicata, there seems no reason why the Firth of Forth 

 should not possess say 40. Professor Herdman, with 

 whom I have communicated on the subject, concurs in 

 this estimate. 



PISCES OR FISHES. 



The Fishes of the Forth are, as a whole, well known. 

 They were early observed and studied. Sibbald in the end of 

 the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries/ 

 and !N"eill in the beginning of the nineteenth,^ paid attention 

 to them, and in 1838 Parnell's classic essay " On the Fishes 

 of the District of the Firth of Forth," — to use the title on 

 the separately printed copies, — was published by the 



^ History of Fife and Kinross, 1710; cf. also new edition, 1803, in which 

 the list of fishes is annotated, pp. 118-129. 



2 "List of the Fishes found in the Firth of Forth," Memoirs of the 

 Wernerian Nat. Hist. Sac, vol. i., pp. 526-555, 1808. 



