212 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM VOLUME 1 



sions here the dredge has come up with the net covered both inside and out with hun- 

 dreds of Antedons and their broken remains. They have also been obtained in large 

 numbers from the crab and lobster pots ("creels") which the fishermen set in about 18 

 meters off the rocky coast of Bradda Head at the northern side of the entrance to 

 Port Erin Bay. The locality nearest the Biological Station at which the species has 

 actually been dredged (Station 60) is 600 feet west of the breakwater and 850 feet 

 northwest of the Castles. 



The feather star was found to be abundant near Rhoscolyn Beacon (Herdman, 

 1891), and was dredged in large numbers off Cemmaes Bay on the north coast of 

 Anglesea during the Hyena expedition of 1886 (Chadwick, 1889, 1907). 



At Milford Haven it is recorded as very common (Adams, 1800). 



In Ireland it is recorded as abundant on the Dublin coast (Forbes, 1841 on the au- 

 thority of Mr. R. Ball) and off Ireland's Eye (Wm. Thompson, 1856), and very abundant 

 in Dublin Bay in the channel between Dalkey Island and the mainland (Hassall, 1842) 

 and close to shore under the Martello Tower on Dalkey Island (Haddon, 1886). It 

 is also abundant at the southern entrance to Ballynakill Harbour (Kemp, 1905) and 

 in Queenstown harbor (J. V. Thompson, 1827). It is given as scarce at Greystones, 

 County Wicklow (Haddon, 1886; Macintosh, 1884) and quite rare at the Skerries, 

 County Dublin (Colgan, 1905). 



In the Scilly Islands Mr. Lewes (1860) found it at St. Mary's Island on Laminaria 

 roots, and Mr. Rupert Vallentin (1904) found one at the same place in a tide pool; it 

 also is known from White Island (A. H. Clark, 1912). 



Mr. Vallentin says (1898) that when he first commenced dredging in Falmouth 

 Harbour, Cornwall, this was one of the commonest forms to be met with in the deep 

 water, but since then they have steadily decreased in numbers and one can scarcely 

 now obtain a single specimen where in previous years they were so numerous. 



In the 1870's a very interesting discussion took place regarding the abundance of 

 the rosy feather star in the vicinity of Torbay. 



The Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society went on a marine 

 excursion to that district, and the president of the Society, Mr. W. R. Hughes, who 

 reported upon the results of the excursion, wrote (October 2, 1873) that during the 

 week beginning September 1, 1873, by far the most noteworthy capture was the feath- 

 er star, two individuals of which were taken in the larval pedunculate condition at- 

 tached near the base of a frond of Laminaria which was torn off by the dredge, and 

 that five young in a free condition, the largest about an inch across, were also taken. 

 They were captured in the vicinity of Torbay on Thursday, September 5, 1873, at a 

 depth of 22 meters on a limestone bottom, the bottom temperature registering 15.0 C. 

 A subsequent haul on the following day (September 6) in the same locality brought up 

 three adults. 



Three years later (October 12, 1876) Major Fred. H. Lang took exception to the 

 idea that the feather star was rare about Torbay, and said that during the preceding 

 month Mr. Arthur Roope Hunt and himself, dredging in Torbay in Mr. Hunt's handy 

 little sailing vessel, had taken comatulids not by twos and threes but in the greatest 

 abundance. In one haul off Berry Head there were certainly more than a hundred 

 adults. On this occasion the dredge was brought on board crammed full of the com- 

 moner Ophiothrixfragilis (Abildgaard) of which there must have been many thousands, 

 the comatulids forming only a small percentage. This haul was in about 22 meters on a 



