No. 465.] STUDIES OF MYXINOIDS. 641 
them. When this was done they would throw out great quan- 
tities of slime, and wriggle among the rocks, some of them 
leaving the nest, and swimming rapidly around the tank. 
When the sixth day came it was harder to rouse them, and for 
about ten days following they could hardly be stirred, neither 
throwing out slime nor swimming when the water was troubled. 
If one was lifted on a stick and moved, it quickly settled down 
wherever it might. be, finding its way back to the rocks later. 
This was not due to illness, for their positions were normal. 
Toward the latter part of the third week, they became more 
active, lying quietly in the rocks when undisturbed, but rousing 
easily and getting much excited when water was poured on them 
from a pail, swimming freely and throwing off slime again, as 
they had done at first. 
The second lot I received went through the same stages of 
liveliness and torpor as the first, and in about the same time 
intervals; 
The so called slime they throw off is their chief means of 
protection. It often enables them to escape from whatever 
would catch them, by forming a covering so slippery that it is 
difficult if not impossible to get or keep hold of them. The 
thread cells are not emitted except upon sufficient provocation. 
I have often lifted. them carefully and had them slip through 
"my fingers without causing thread cells to escape. It is their 
response to conditions that irritate; they are always thickly sur- 
rounded with slime when caught on the hook, and the occasional 
ones that died natural deaths in the tank had always thrown off 
a considerable amount of slime in dying. 
The question of what and how the hagfish eat, is one that 
has been much discussed in previous papers about them, some 
writers maintaining that they are parasites, and all stating that 
they are extremely voracious. In regard to this latter point the 
evidence comes from the fishing grounds. When the night lines 
are examined, one third or more of the hooks hold hagfish and 
the fish on many of the others have been entirely eaten away, 
nothing but the skin and bones being left. The hagfish has 
bored inside the skin and eaten all the soft parts, and is some- 
times caught in the very act of wriggling away at the close ” 
