MICROMALDANE ORNITHOCH ATA. 497 
The bristles of the first region (four segments) are pale golden and brittle, having a 
straight shaft, and a curved, finely tapered tip (Plate CX X XVI, fig. 17) with narrow wings. 
The spine in these segments is stout, golden, and pointed, the tip being shghtly hooked 
(Plate CXX XVI, fig. 17a). 
The bristles of the middle region are pale-golden and of two kinds, a stronger series 
of about five with stout shafts and tapering, winged tips, and a more numerous group of 
slender capillary bristles which extend considerably beyond the former. ‘The tips of the 
stout series in front of the tail are somewhat longer, but the capillary bristles are shorter, 
for they do not reach the extremities of the stout forms. 
The hooks in the smaller example are stout and rather short, with a base dilating up 
to the shoulder, which has a hump posteriorly; then the neck is narrowed where it is grasped 
by the cuticle, again dilates toward the main fang, a distinct bulge occurring below the 
origin of the gular bristle, where it is again narrowed below the main fang, which is curved 
at less than a right angle to the neck, and has four teeth above it. The neck and shaft are 
boldly striated. In the larger specimen the main fang leaves the neck nearly at a right 
angle, and above it are four prominent teeth. The gular bristle appears to be single, and 
sometimes curves beyond the main fang and over it (Plate CX X XVI, fig. 170). 
MICROMALDANE ORNITHOCH@TA, Mesnil, 1897. Plate CXXXVI, fig. 18—body, 18a— 
bristle, 185—hook. 
Specific Characters—Cephalic region (prostomium) somewhat clavate and symmetrically 
rounded (elliptical) when seen from above; irregularly clavate in lateral view, ventrally 
the snout slopes backward and slightly upward to the mouth. ‘Two pairs of eyes, and two 
longitudinal grooves (nuchal organs). Two gular bristles (or none ?). Body comparatively 
small, 4 mm. in length, and having nineteen segments, seventeen of which are setigerous, 
enlarged anteriorly, cylindrical in the middle and tapering to the truncated posterior end. The 
middle region consists of two elongated segments, whilst the achetous caudal is crenated 
from the various rings, with a small papilla (anus) on ‘he truncated end. Glands abound 
in the body-wall. Bristles somewhat resemble a pointed assegai or sharp spear, the shaft 
bemg stout. Hooks minute, shaft rudimentary, enlarging into a bulbous shoulder, above 
which is a rather thick neck, and in general shape resembling those of Lumbriclymene minor, 
Arwidsson, or approaching that of a Sabellarian. 
SYNONYMS. 
1897. Micromaldane ormithochxta, Mesnil. Bull. Sci. Fr. et Belg., t. xxx, p. 146, text-figs. 1 and 2. 
1914. Ra _ Southern. Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., vol. xxxi, No. 47, p. 134. 
1922. 5 nk McIntosh. Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, vol. ix, p. 28. 
Habitat— Dredged in Clew Bay, 9—11 fathoms, and at Howth, in Laminarian roots 
(Southern). 
Abroad it has been found in the cavities of Lithothamnion at La Hague, near Cherbourg 
(Mesnil). 
A minute form, measuring 4 mm. long, the cephalic region when viewed from above 
