THE COMATULIDS OF TORRES STRAIT: WITH SPECIAL 

 REFERENCE TO THEIR HABITS AND REACTIONS. 



BY HUBERT LYMAN CLARK. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In a paper on Recent crinoids, published a few years since,* our 

 present generally acknowledged authority on that difficult group 

 hazarded the opinion that "crinoids, as a class, are probably the most 

 strictly sessile of all marine organisms," and further on he refers to 

 them as "practically sessile organisms" as contrasted with star-fishes, 

 brittle-stars, and sea-urchins. My own acquaintance with living 

 crinoids was at that time confined to superficial observations on the 

 European species of Antedon shown in the aquaria at Port Erin, Isle 

 of Man, and at Naples, but I had carried away with me from those 

 places the impression that comatulids are quite active animals, good 

 swimmers, and anything but "sessile." When, therefore, I found 

 myself a member of the party sent by the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington to Torres Strait, I determined, if littoral crinoids proved 

 easily obtainable, to devote particular attention to their habits and 

 reactions. My desire to do this was increased by the fact that in the 

 paper to which I have referred, Mr. Clark makes statements with 

 reference to food habits, bathymetrical distribution, size, and color of 

 Recent crinoids, which seem to be based on assumptions rather than on 

 observations, and from which he draws some far-reaching conclusions. 

 It seemed clear that actual observations made on living crinoids, both 

 in aquaria and under natural conditions on the reef, could not fail to 

 be of interest and value. 



It was fortunate, for the purposes of my investigations, that Dr. 

 Mayer determined to establish our laboratory on Mae'r, the largest of 

 the Murray Islands, at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef, 

 for comatulids of many different species and genera occur there and at 

 least half a dozen kinds are common near low-water mark. It was 

 therefore possible to make many observations from which certain deduc- 

 tions seem to be permissible. This report embodies those observations 

 and deductions and necessarily includes some criticisms of Mr. A. H. 

 Clark's assumptions. I hope, however, that these criticisms of his 

 paper will not appear captious or irrelevant, since they are offered only 



*Tbe Recent Crinoids and their Relation to Sea and Land (Austin Hobart Clark, Geographical 

 Journal, London, December 1908, pp. 602-607). This paper, except for its introductory para- 

 graphs, is virtually a reprint, under another title, of the paper by the same author, in the American 

 Naturalist for November 1908, entitled "Some Points in the Ecology of Recent Crinoids." 



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