414 Prof. E. Forbes on some Additions to the British Fauna. 



1 had formed my opinion from the skeleton, but from a more 

 careful examination of a fine specimen which had been taken 

 alive, and which Mr. MacAndrew entrusted to my care to convey 

 to the British Museum, I have convinced myself that it is no 

 other than the " Pennatula quadrangular is" of Pallas, first dis- 

 covered and described by Bohadsch, and hitherto unknown in the 

 Atlantic. It forms the type of Cuvier's genus Pavonaria. 



The specimen in question is a slender, flexible rod, no less than 



2 feet 6 inches in length, and consists of an acutely quadrangular 

 calcareous skeleton invested with animal matter, consisting of a 

 general integument and three series of sessile but exserted polypes 

 arranged unilaterally, the position of the ranges corresponding to 

 three of the angles of the stem. The animal matter in the dried 

 state is of a yellow colour and the skeleton white. It was taken both 

 dead and alive in 20 fathoms water off the island of Kerrera near 

 Oban, the bottom being mud, in which it doubtless stands erect 

 after the manner of Virgularia. Before a fuller description can 

 be drawn up, specimens must be examined in the living state or 

 preserved in fluid. In the meantime I offer the following remarks 

 on the history of the species. 



It was first described by Bohadsch in his interesting work ' De 

 quibusdam animalibus marinis' (1761), who states that he pro- 

 cured it from the fishermen at Naples, who call it " Penna del 

 pesce pavone" He describes his specimen as 2 feet 10 inches in 

 length, although broken short. He gives a rude figure taken 

 from a living specimen. He describes the skeleton as friable, " ex 

 pasta veluti farinacea compactum videtur /"...." Os hocce quadra- 

 turn, candidum, membrana lutescens, falso sapore donata imme- 

 diate investit, quam cutis coriacea dimidiam circiter lineam crassa 

 undique circumdat. Inter utramque membranam in vivo animali 

 quemdam humorem continerit, atque formam totius Penna cylin- 

 dricam esse opinor, et quidem ex eo, quod Pennce rubra, &c. mor- 

 tuse et exsiccatse truncus quoque aliter configuratus sit, quam in 

 Penna viva observetur " (p. 1 12) . He states that the polypes have 

 eight white, not very prominent tentacula, and are arranged on 

 three sides of the trunk. In 1766 Pallas gave a diagnosis of this 

 zoophyte under the appropriate name of Pennatula quadrangular is 

 in his ' Elenchus Zoophytorum/ adding the remark, "vidi fere bi- 

 pedale." Subsequent authors seem to have described it at second 

 hand. Ellis gave a copy of Bohadsch' s figure in the 53rd volume 

 of the ' Philosophical Transactions/ as " Dr. Bohadsclr's sea pen, 

 called the pen of the peacock fish" (t. 20. fig. 7, 8). In the 

 work of Solander and Ellis it is recorded as Pennatula antennina, 

 as also in Gmelin. Lamarck made it a species of his genus Fu- 

 niculina, an assemblage of three dissimilar zoophytes, styling it 

 Funiculina tetragona. Cuvier constituted the genus Pavonaria 



