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Professor Edward Forbes.
93

before it had ceased to be continental, but after Ireland and the Isle of Man had become separated from it. Unio Roissyi Forbes found in the river at Kirk Braddon, and we there picked up some fragments of the valves.

The young Naturalist records finding the bone (so called) of the cuttle-fish on the Manx coast, but the animal is in reality somewhat a southern species; we got a large mass of the ova of another cephalopod (Ommastrephes todarus) off the Calf, resembling in everything but size those of Sepiola. To the naked-gilled molluscs which he records in the Malacologia must be added the beautiful Dendronotus arborescens from near the same place, and the fine Doris tuberculata or Argo found on Consastor and elsewhere, as in a cavern at the foot of Peel Castle rock; also Eolis viridis and Aplysia at Douglas, Of the shelled gasteropods we got Capulus Hungaricus, Emarginula fissara,[1] and Fissurella Græca from the Ramsey scallop-bed, as Forbes had already done; Trochus Montagui and timidus, Douglas: Amæa testadinalis, Ramsey; A. virginea, much more common than the last on scallop shells; Trophon clathratus; lastly, Chiton Asellus and cancellatus, F, and H., must be added to the list.[2] Of the common limpets, under the name of flitters, the poorer Manx make their soup.

As regards bivalve molluscs we might expect to meet with Brachiopoda in the deeper water around the island, and our friend found a single specimen of Crania at Ballaugh. Ramsey is rich in bivalves. I found a specimen of Isocardium cor there, many years back, with the valves still united by the ligament; also Pecten tigrinus, living, in the scallop-bed; Tellina incarnata, Douglas; Venus verrucosa, fine living species of this southern species, both at Douglas and Ramsey; Tapes aurea and decussata; Solecurtus candidus; Psammobia Tellinella, Douglas, by the dredge: these, with the exception of the last species, are not in Malaecologia Monensis. We append in a note a List of other species, all of which we have found, but which are generally in that work,[3] also of Crustacea, mostly brought up by the dredge or in the lobster pots.[4]

We dredged Comatula rosacea off Douglas, but get it much finer between Port Erin and the Calf, from the source already alluded to.

  1. My specimens appear to be E. Mülleri.
  2. Also fine specimens of Trochus Magus and sizyphinus, with a white variety of the latter found on Conaster Rock. Bullæa aperta, Natica Alderi.
  3. Bivalve Mollusca—Lima fragilia. Ramsey scallop-bed; Cardium Norvegicum; Lucina flexuosa, L. borealis; Lucinopsis undata, Ramsey; Cyprina Islandica, sometimes with a large growth of serputæ attached, Ramsey; dfretra studternns, Ramsey, M. eiptina, Donglas, M. truncata and avbfrurneats; dstirte Dane tnd.tensis; Artemis eraieia, Ballanch. A. lineta; Venus ovata, V. casina, V. fasciata, Ramsey, V. galiina; Psammobia Ferroensis, Ramsey by the dredge, P. vespertina less plentiful than the last. And also Tellina crassa et aliæ, Donax anatina (minor, nitida), Nucla margaritacea and tenuis, Pectunculus Glycimeris, Solen marginatus, Syndosmya intermedia et aliæ, Anomia striata found on the inner surface of Pectens, very delicate, the lower or perforated valve convex, though often scarcely present.
  4. Crustacea—Stenorhynchus Phalangium, Bell, Port Erin; Inachus Dorsettensis ibid, I. Dorynchus, ibid; Pina Gibbsii; Eurynome aspera, Douglas; Pilumnus hirtellus, Port Erin; Portunus corrugatus, ibid; Ebalia Pennantii. Ramsey scallop bank; Porcellana longicornis, ibid; Galathea squaemifera, Douglas bay, under stones, G. strigosa, much bigger than the last, Port Erin. Astacus Norvegicus is seen in quantities in Douglas market.