82 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



I have never heard of its being found on the eastern shores, 

 though in Shetland, Mr Goodsir and I found several in ten 

 fathoms on Laminaria." Dr Carpenter, in the Third Edition 

 of " The Microscope/' at page 583, in a foot note, states that 

 it is found in Kirkwall Bay, Orkney. 



I am happy in saying, that although very rare, it is not 

 altogether wanting on our eastern shores. During my 

 residence at Peterhead (about three and a half years), I met 

 with but one specimen ; it was in the stomach of a fish, and 

 although taken from such a situation (as may be seen by the 

 specimen herewith sent), it was not much mutilated. 



In his " List of the Echinodermata of the Moray Firth," 

 the Kev. George Gordon mentions having met with " a very 

 mutilated specimen from the stomach of a haddock killed 

 in the Moray Firth in 1850." 



Although I have looked out for them attentively here 

 more than eight years), two only have come under my 

 notice, one from the stomach of a fish, thus again showing 

 the best star-fish hunters. Last summer I got the other 

 out of a fishing-boat at Staxigo ; it was small and living, 

 hooked to a shell. I kept it alive for a long time, and 

 although it waved its arms about when disturbed, I never 

 could perceive that it moved from the spot it was hooked to 

 when I got it. It held on firmly by the claws of the filiform 

 processes with its arms stiffly held up, as well represented 

 by Gosse in his " Manual of Marine Zoology," vol. i., page 

 63, fig. 93. I had this pretty object so placed that I could 

 examine it with a powerful lens and see its very slow move- 

 ments. It appeared to be very indolent ; it was about an 

 inch from tip to tip of the arms. Unfortunately, in showing 

 it to a friend, my finger slipped, and like most pets, it came 

 to an ill end. 



A short time ago I had presented to me by Miss Miller, of . 

 High Street, Thurso, a nice specimen of sponge, Halichon- 

 dria palmata. It was taken in 1862, on a fisherman's line 

 in the Pentland Firth ; fortunately it w T as carefully pre- 

 served and left unwashed, with ail its own juices, and the 

 objects parasitical on it. (The specimen accompanies this 

 paper.) On it is a fine family of Eosy Feather Stars, two 



