PREFACE 



Parts, 3, 4, and 5 of Volume 1, Bulletin 82, include the systematic discussion of 

 the species and higher groups of living comatulids, or unstalked criuoids. Part 3, 

 published in 1931, included the account of the superfamily Comasteridae. Part 4a, 

 the present part, includes the account of the superfamily Mariametrida, with the 

 exception of the family Colobometridae. 



In the preparation of Part 4a I have been under special obligations to Dr. Baini 

 Prashad, director of the Zoological Survey of India, who has sent me for study all the 

 specimens in the collection of the Indian Museum that I had not previously seen; to 

 Dr. K. W. Dammerman, director of the Buitenzorg Museum, who sent me all the 

 comatulids in the collections under his care; to Dr. H. Boschma, director of the Leiden 

 Museum, who sent me the important collection made in the Dutch East Indies by the 

 Willebrord Snellius; to Dr. W. T. Caiman, C. C./A. Monro, and D. Dilwyn John, of 

 the British Museum (Natural History), who sent me many specimens from that 

 institution, and also the very interesting collection made by the John Murray Expe- 

 dition, 1933-34, in the Indian Ocean; and to F. N. Chasen and M. W. F. Tweedie, 

 who sent me the collection of the Raffles Museum, Singapore. 



I am also under obligations to Dr. Hubert Lyman Clark, of the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology, at Cambridge, Mass., who as in the past has most courteously 

 permitted me to examine the specimens under his care; to Dr. Th. Mortensen, of the 

 Zoological Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark; to Dr. Torsten Gislen, of Lund, Sweden, 

 for most valuable criticism and suggestions; to Dr. Maximilian Holly, of the Natural 

 History Museum at Vienna, Austria, for detailed information regarding the specimens 

 in the collection of which he has charge; and to Edward J. Holmes, director of the 

 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass. 



To my colleagues in the United States National Museum and to the staff of the 

 Museum's library I owe a debt of gratitude for their unfailing kindness in assisting in 

 various ways to clear up the many complex geographical, bibliographical, and other 

 questions that have constantly arisen during the progress of the work. 



The illustrations are almost entirely reproductions of photographs taken by G. I. 

 Hightower under the supervision of Dr. A. J. Olmsted in the photographic laboratory 

 of the Museum. Both Dr. Olmsted and Mr. Hightower have been unremitting in 

 their efforts to secure the best possible results with these exceptionally difficult 

 subjects. 



The specimens figured on the plates are for the most part in the collection of the 

 United States National Museum. Many, however, chiefly type specimens, are in 

 other museums. These museums are: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, 

 Mass. (M.C.Z.); British Museum (Natural History), London, England (B.M.); 

 Copenhagen Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark (C.M.); Hamburg Museum, Hamburg, 

 Germany (H.M.); Museum fur Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany (Berl. Mus.); Amster- 

 dam Museum, Amsterdam, Holland; Leiden Museum, Leiden, Holland (L.M.); 

 Indian Museum, Calcutta, India (I.M); Australian Museum, Sydney, New South 

 Wales; and the Cairo Museum, Cairo, Egypt. 



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