302 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1888. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE 

 BERMUDA ISLANDS. 



BY PEOF. AXGELO HEILPEIX. 



The following notes on the zoology of a group of islands but little 

 known to the naturalist are based on personal observations, and on 

 collections made during a brief sojourn on the islands during the 

 past summer, in company with a class of students from the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences. But little systematic' work, other than that in 

 the departments of orinthology, ichthyology, and botany, had hith- 

 erto been done in this remarkal)ly interesting, and typically oceanic, 

 island group, and it was thought that a more critical survey misht 

 bring out facts of general interest to the zoological student, and 

 throw some additional light upon the intricate subject of zoogeogra- 

 phy. In the results obtained I have not been disappointed. The 

 exuberance of animal life has yielded much that has proved to be new 

 to the systematist, while certain remarkable peculiarities in the dis- 

 triliution of a number of well-known types of animals open up vistas 

 in geograjihical distribution which appear to me at present to recede 

 into darkness, and, perhaps, tend to draw only more closely the veil 

 over this mysterious subject. 



Much of my time was devoted to an examination of geological 

 features, and, indeed, the special object of the journey Avas to 

 ascertain, in the light of more recent inquiry, what evidence could 

 be obtained from the Bermudas bearing upon the question of the 

 growth and develojiment of coral islands. The substance of my 

 observations in this field will be presented in a future paper. Only 

 a portion of the zoological results is here published, inasmuch as 

 additional material "in certain departments, intended to fill in gaps 

 in the inquiry, has been promised by local collectors. 



The specimens noted or described in the following pages were 

 mainly obtained through dred^ings, which were carried on as well 

 in the outer water as in the smaller interior sounds and lagoons. 

 As might have been anticipated the greatest profusion of animal 

 life was found on the edge of the growing reef itself, the shoals 

 surrounding the cluster of rocks on the northern barrier known as 

 the North Rock. The wealth of forms occui-ring here almost tran- 

 scends belief; unfortunately, the combination of limited time at our 

 command and the state of the weather prevented more than a cursory 



