272 Mr. F. McCoy's Contributions to the Fauna of Ireland, 



under wing-coverts and back deep glossy black ; small wing-co- 

 verts, tail, and upper and under tail-coverts pure white ; first 

 three quill-feathers black, with a broad longitudinal band of white 

 on their inner webs ; remainder of the wings ash-gray, becoming 

 darker towards the body. 



The form, proportions and size of this species are very nearly 

 those of the black tern (>Si. nigra) ; like that species too the webs of 

 the toes are very deeply indented, being reduced to a mere rudi- 

 ment between the middle and inner toes. The two species are 

 however easily distinguished, — the under wing-coverts of the S. 

 nigra are white, of the S. leucoptera black ; the tail of the former 

 is dark gray, of the latter pure white ; in the S. nigra the throat 

 is white, breast and abdomen dark gray, and the baek lead-colour, 

 while in the S. leucoptera all those parts are black. I speak of 

 both species in their perfect plumage. 



ECHINODERMATA. 



Priapulus ? PI. XVI. fig. 1. — A species of Priapulus is 



very common in the sand at low water mark in Connemara, and 

 occasionally found on the east coast : as it does not agree with the 

 figures of Miiller or Prof. E. Forbes of the P. caudatv^, nor agree 

 exactly with their descriptions, I have made a drawing of a mo- 

 derate-sized specimen for comparison. In a great number of spe- 

 cimens I have examined, the characters seemed to present no 

 variation ; in all of them the trunk is transversely striated, the 

 general proportions thicker and more robust than in P. caudatus ; 

 the body uniformly cylindrical, not dilated at the extremities ; the 

 posterior extremity, instead of being dilated and open, is narrowed 

 and closed; there. is no longitudinal striation in any of the speci- 

 mens at either end of the body ; the posterior extremity is irre- 

 gularly tuberculated ; the caudal appendage is much thicker and 

 more bushy than in the P. caudatus. As I have not seen living 

 specimens I have left the species an open question ; if it should 

 prove distinct from the species described by Miiller and Prof. 

 Forbes, it might perhaps be called P. hihernicus. Specimens 

 are in the museum of the Natural-History Society of Dublin, 

 and a large series of them, of every age and size, in the museum 

 of the Royal Dublin Society. 



Syrinx granulosus (M^^Coy), PI. XVI. fig. 2. — Sp. Ch. Body 

 nearly smooth, very minutely and uniformly granulated, and ob- 

 soletely striated transversely ; basal half of the proboscis and the 

 posterior extremity of the body roughened by deep concentric 

 rugse and small crowded tubercles ; proboscis from the anal pore 

 to the mouth one-fourth the length of the body, posterior extre- 

 mity mucronate. 



This fine species is intermediate in character between the S.pa- 



