abstracts: zoology 425 



Ocean. Twenty-two species of cephalopods are represented, among 

 them a fair number of novel forms, 



the interest of which, however, is mainly zoogeographical and as a rule 

 throwing little light upon the broader problems of morphology and inter- 

 relationship. 



To the paper is appended a bibliography of 137 titles, with reprints 

 of several of the earlier and more inaccessible papers having a direct 

 bearing on the teuthology of the west American region and containing 

 the original descriptions of several species. Ethel M. Smith. 



ZOOLOGY. — Some hydroids of Beaufort, North Carolina. C. McLean 

 Fraser. Bulletin of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, vol. 30, 1910, 

 pp. 337-388, 52 text figures. Issued July 23, 1912. 



Altho Beaufort had not been expected to yield large collections of 

 hydroids, two weeks devoted to the purpose by Dr. Fraser in August 

 and September, 1911, with facilities of the U. S. Fisheries Laboratory 

 at his disposal, produced material of much interest and surprising abun- 

 dance for so limited a period. The sources were the piles and rocks at 

 low water, floating gulf weed, and dredgings, chiefly in Bogue Sound and, 

 by the U. S. Fisheries Steamer Fish Hatch, some 23 miles outside the 

 harbor. 



Of the 51 species obtained but one is new, though several are new to 

 this part of the coast and four gonosome descriptions are new. Much 

 of the material was in such good condition and contained so many good 

 specimens, that many interesting points were made out and it was 

 possible to add much new matter to the regular descriptions of species. 



The locality is of very great interest because it is less than 100 miles 

 from Cape Hatteras, which has been considered somewhat of a rival of 

 Cape Cod as a divisional point for different groups of marine forms. A 

 study of the distribution of even the few species collected is illuminating, 

 and, altho what may be true of hydroids is not necessarily true of other 

 forms and in some cases might seem to be necessarily untrue of them, 

 the comparisons afforded warrant some generalizations. 



In the first place, when 31 species out of a total of 51 have been 

 reported from the east coast of North America farther north, there is no 

 evidence, so far as hydroids are concerned, that Cape Hatteras with its 

 storms is any decisive barrier. In the second place, what little evidence 

 there is on this question goes to sustain the conclusion that many of the 

 hydroids have been distributed from a circumpolar area, southward 



