220 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



CONTRIBUTION TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE 

 HYDROID FAUNA OF THE WEST OF SCOT- 

 LAND. 



BEING AN ACCOUNT OF COLLECTIONS MADE 

 BY SIR JOHN MURRAY, K.C.B., ON S.Y. " MEDUSA." 



By JAMES RITCHIE, M.A., B.Sc., 

 The Royal Scottish Museum. 



THIS paper is an almost insignificant attempt to reduce our 

 ignorance of the marine invertebrate fauna of the West Coast 

 of Scotland. Apart from that relating to the Clyde Sea 

 area, to which many skilled and painstaking naturalists have 

 devoted their attention, little information can be gleaned of 

 the natives of our western seas. This is the more to be 

 wondered at since the Atlantic Coast has already shown 

 itself to be worthy of close scrutiny. Not only the recent 

 magnificent researches of the Irish Fishery Board on the 

 west of Ireland, but even casual records from Scottish waters, 

 foretell that the western coast of Scotland will yield to the 

 investigator many kinds of animals at present regarded as 

 members of a more southern fauna, and many kinds also, 

 unknown on our eastern coasts, which will link the fauna of 

 South- Western Europe with that of Norway. 



The material to which I had access consisted of collec- 

 tions brought together by Sir John Murray and presented by 

 him to the British Museum (Natural History) between the 

 years 1887 and 1892. But in order to make the account 

 of the work accomplished by the " Medusa " as thorough as 

 possible, I have included the references to Hydroids contained 

 in the yacht's log-books, and in various lists of species 

 representing the content of collections examined by experts 

 at Sir John Murray's request. Such manuscript records are 

 indicated by " (M.)," and although some of them have already 

 been published in the British Association volume, " Fauna, 

 Flora, and Geology of the Clyde Area " (1901), the desire to 

 make this a comprehensive list of the Hydroids collected by 

 Sir John Murray in the West has induced me to repeat them 

 here. 



