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Show 106 DR. W. BAIRD ON THE GEPHYREA. [Feb. 13, it not for the author's descriptions, to induce one to suppose that referred to a distinct species from the animal figured by Ehlers and others, and the specimens from Scotland and Greenland which we possess in our Collection. The P. hibernicus of M'Coy, as figured by him in the ' Annals,' exactly corresponds with the figure given by Ehlers of P. caudatus, and with our specimens of that species in the Collection as corrugated by the spirits in which they have been preserved. I have no hesitation, therefore, in referring it to our P. caudatus. What Quatrefages could see in either M'Coy's description or figure to induce him to place it in the genus Lacazia I am at a loss to understand. Indeed he himself places it there with doubt. Linnaeus, in his dissertation, ' Chinensia Lagerstrcemiana ' (first published in 1754),andafterwardsinthe'AmcenitatesAcademicae,' vol.iv. p. 255, and in the 10th edit, of the Syst. Natur. p. 656 (1758), describes a species of Priapulus which has been usually quoted as synonymous with the P. caudatus. H e names it in these works Priapus humanus-an objectionable name in itself, and which he afterwards changed in the 12th edition of the ' Systema Naturae ' to Holothuria priapus. As the species of plants and animals mentioned in that dissertation ('Chinensia Lagerstrcemiana') chiefly refer to those inhabiting the Southern or East-Indian and Chinese seas, and as in the 10th edit, of the Syst. Nat. he mentions distinctly the habitat " in mari indico," I have some hesitation in referring the species described there to the caudatus, which is a northern species, and not likely to be met with in the Indian seas. Osbeck, however, a pupil of Linnaeus, mentions a species as found in China, and which is referred to the Holothuria priapus of Linnasus. His voyage to China was made in the years 1750-52; and an English translation, with a ' Faunula Chinesia' attached, was published in London in 1771 : vide this edition, p. 337. 2. PRIAPULUS GLANDIFER. Priapulusglandifer, Ehlers, Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Zool. torn. ii. p. 209, t. 20. f. 24, 1862; Quatrefages, I.e. p. 601, 1865. Hab. North seas (Ehlers). 3. PRIAPULUS BREVICAUDATUS. Priapulus brevicaudatus, Ehlers, I. c. t. 21. f. 23, 1862 ; Quatrefages, I. c. p. 601, 1865. Hab. North seas (Ehlers). 4. PRIAPULUS TUBERCULATO-SPINOSUS. (PL XI. fig. 3.) Proboscis 25 costis longitudinalibus tuberculato-spinosis; cauda brevis, papillis numerosis validis longe acuminatis; dentes os cingentes, pallidi, in basi lati cum aculeo parum incurvato unico corporis pars postica verrucis magnis obsita. Hab. Falkland Islands. Collected by Dr. J. Robertson during the Antarctic expedition under the command of Sir James Ross. B.M. |