MISCELLANEOUS N OTIJS. 



patches and streaks of deep carmine-red on the ground color ot reddish- 

 yellow. The proboscis was uniformly deep carmine-red. The left 

 tentacle had a small branch near the tip. On the sides and the posterior 

 aspect of the foot, we were able to make out two lobes, one standing up 

 from each side of the foot and applied to the shell. It seemed probable 

 to me that, when fully extended, these lobes enveloped the shell to a 

 greater or less extent— a supposition which is strengthened, as was 

 first pointed out by Mr. Namlyl, by the fact that the shells of Pleu- 

 rotomaria, hitherto found, are all extremely clean and have never 

 barnacles, worm-tubes etc. attached to them. The mantle was not at all 

 visible and we were thus not able to see how it is related to the slit on 

 the outer hp. As this is, so far as we know, the first time, a living 

 specimen of Pleurotomaria has come into the hands of a naturalist, it 

 has been thought worth while to put the fact on record. 



K. Mitsukuki. 



The Oplliiuian Shoal. In the course of a collecting tour which 



we made last spring (18%) in the provinces of Satsuma and Osumi 

 (in Kiushiu), we met with a curious mode of occurrence of an ophiurian 

 which is parhaps worth noting here. On the eastern side of the island 

 Sakurajima in the Bay of Kagoshima, there is a small village called 

 Kurokami. A few hundred metres off the sea-front of this place there is 

 a small sandy shoal named Hainashima which becomes exposed at low 

 tide. Towards the evening of April 1, after having skirted the island 

 the whole day, we found ourselves approaching this shallow. As our 

 dug-out boat struck the bottom, all of us eagerly waded into water 

 which was at the time fifteen to twenty centimeters deep. We were 

 soon struck with very curious objects. Numerous slender stalks a few 

 millimeters in diameter and 10-15 centimeters high were standing up 

 from the bottom, looking, for all we knew, like the stems of so many 

 weeds. Along one side of each stalk, there was, however, a row of 



white papilla-like structures. These stalks 

 were mostly by twos, although sometimes 

 * / only one was standing by itself. We do not 



remember having seen three making a group. 

 As we dug to learn more about these curious 

 objects, we were greatly surprised to find that 

 they were the arms of ophiurians, and that 

 the papilla-like structures were therefore no doubt tube-feet. So far as 

 we could see, there was no difference between the five arms of the 



