of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



387 



Dr C. A. MacMunn. This paper, which is only an abstract of the results 

 of Dr MacMunn's researches, describes the pigments present in a large 

 number of invertebrata belonging to different groups. 



Mr Gilbert C. Bourne, the Resident Director, describes a Tornaria, 

 the pelagic larva of Balanoylossus, taken in the neighbourhood of 

 Plymouth, and the first specimens found in British seas, and gives an 

 account of its anatomy, illustrated by two plates. There are also short 

 papers in the same journal on 'The Marine Oligochaeta of Plymouth,' 

 by Mr F. E. Beddard ; on ' The Mackerel Fishery in the West of England,' 

 by R. J. Ridge, and an account of ' The Scientific Work of the Fishery 

 Board for Scotland,' by Dr T. Wemyss Fulton. 



The marine fauna of the south west of Ireland has recently been the 

 subject of special investigation. In the Proceedings of the Royal Irish 

 Academy* Professor A. C. Haddon gives the general results of the 

 Dredging Expedition of the Committee of the Academy, and the Rev. 

 W. S. Green describes the equipment and apparatus employed. A new 

 species of Edwardsia and the erect variety of Eirizoanthus papUlosus, 

 with an associated Par/urus, were taken. The latter replaces the mollusc's 

 shell on which it settles, so that the carcinoecium is formed entirely by 

 the soft tissues of the actinian. Ilolothuria tremula and a new British 

 addition Chitonactis richardi were met with. Cassidaria tyrrhenea was 

 obtained in 265 fathoms. This expedition affords another evidence of 

 the interdigitation of northern and southern forms on the south-west 

 coast of Ireland. 



Professor W. C. M'Intosh has recently given an account of the 

 development of the common mussel (Mytilus edulis).\ Some of the older 

 mussels found at the Eden are covered with Gonothyrwa, which affords 

 a resting place for the spat from the ripe molluscs. The young mussels 

 fix themselves in situations where oxygen is abundant, and where there is 

 a plentiful supply of food. The mussels on settling were from to ^j- 

 inch in length, and the number of gill papillae which were developed at 

 this stage ranged between 3 and 13. Professor M'Intosh holds that 

 mussels can leave their situations and fix themselves anew. Accordingly 

 the measure of growth of the mollusc found on such objects in the sea as 

 pier-supports or ships' bottoms, is not necessarily represented by the size 

 of the mussels on these objects since the objects were last cleaned. 



The Puffin Island Biological Station^ offers an opportunity to young 

 biologists of becoming acquainted with marine animals and plants, and it 

 affords a supply of specimens to the specialists at work on the flora and 

 fauna of Liverpool Bay. In Crustacea several species new to science have 

 been found in the past year. In regard to the young of molluscs, 

 instances of Hydrobia ulvae depositing their eggs on the shells of the 

 same species occur, and all projecting objects on the shore at certain spots 

 are black with the young of the common mussel, which, however, never 

 come to maturity. The suggestion that their disappearance is because 

 they are eaten by larger animals must be received with reserve. The three 

 days' dredging excursion, by the Liverpool Marine Biological Committee to 

 the Isle of Man, was occupied in collecting specimens by dredging and 

 otherwise, but the chief interest centred in the experiments made with 

 the electric light. A 60 candle power Edison-Swan incandescent lamp 

 was placed at the mouth of a tow-net. Two tow-nets — one on either side 



* Proc. E. Irish Acad., vol. i. pp. 29-86, 1888. 



t Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. ii. pp. 467-9, 1888. 



X Second Annual Report on the Puffin Island Biological Station. Liverpool, 1889. 



