240 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



I have taken this opportunity to give a brief notice of 

 these recent investigations and discoveries, as they are un- 

 questionably the most valuable additions to our knowledge 

 of the Spongiadce, since the original contributions of Dr 

 Robert Grant, published in the " Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal" for 1826. 



III. Report of the Committee on Marine Zoology ; with a Notice of the 

 Sprat-Fishing in the Firth of Forth. By George Logan, Esq., Con- 

 vener. (With exhibition of specimens). 



Mr George Logan, W.S., the Convener, read the report 

 of the proceedings of the Committee on Marine Zoology for 

 the past year. The Committee, among numerous other cap- 

 tures, obtained a fine specimen of Corystes cassivelaunus, the 

 masked crab, dredged up in Aberlady Bay. Living speci- 

 mens of Kellia suborhicularis, found plentifully in dead 

 valves of Tapes virginea, near Inchkeith, in September last, 

 lived for rather more than six weeks. Although great num- 

 bers of the hermit crab, Pagurus, were examined, dredged 

 in about six fathoms water, in expectation of finding the 

 parasite Peltogaster paguri frequently attached to it, not a 

 single specimen was discovered. Sacculina carcini was 

 found at Trinity attached to the abdomen of the com- 

 mon edible crab, sometimes two or three on one animal. 

 To show how very little particular the hermit or soldier 

 crabs are in the choice of their residence, one was dredged 

 up near Inchkeith ensconced in the large head of an 

 ancient-looking tobacco pipe, covered with barnacles. One 

 specimen of Psammobia Ferroensis was found near Inch- 

 keith ; and occasionally on old valves were observed the 

 curious pear shapes, stalked ovarian niduses, of Pontobdella 

 muricata, frequently passed over as the undeveloped state 

 of Himanthalea lorea ; some specimens were also procured 

 of Nemertes Borlassii, of a beautiful full dark purple colour, 

 and of enormous length. On the 28th of September four or 

 five specimens of a small flat fish came up in the dredge, 

 which appears to be the Monocliirus linguatulus (Cuvier), 

 first observed in this country by Parnell on the Devonshire 

 coast, and noticed by him in 1837 in the Transactions of the 



