128 RAYED ECHINODERMATA OP BANFFSHIRE. 



in some quarters, it does not follow that such is the case in every 

 place. The writer's opinion is that, to say the least of it, the terra has, as 

 it were, too wide or vague a meaning, whether in a general or a more 

 limited sense, and ought, therefore, to be disused. This will be better shewn 

 from the species about to be enumerated; but doctors differ, and so do natu- 

 ralists, so that the writer may be wrong. There is one great consolation, 

 however, that if he is, he is not the first that has been so, and in all prob- 

 ability will not be the last. Now for the list, in the wish and hope that the 

 reader will excuse the many imperfections which it may contain. 



{Greater?) Sand Star, (Ophiura texturata.) — This is, although termed 

 'common,' not what can with truth be called a very plentiful species with 

 us, neither can it altogether be said to be scarce, but just, as it were, betwixt 

 the two. Some splendid specimens are at times brought on shore by our 

 fishermen. 



Lesser Sand Star, (Ophiura albida.) — With us, as far as I am aware, some- 

 what rare, although not so in some parts of the F'irth. 



Grail Brittle Star, (Ophiocoma neglecta.) — This very little species is what 

 I would term of pretty frequent occurrence here in pools amongst the lower 

 lying rocks, especially where there is a sprinkling of sand. I have taken as 

 many as twenty during one ebb. 



Rosy Brittle Star, (Ophiocoma rosula.) — So far as my experience and observa- 

 tion go in these matters, I cannot, in conscience, call this species 'common,' that 

 is with us, although it bears that general term in works which treat on this 

 subject. That they do occur, I, of course, do not, nor can deny; but not 

 in such numbers as one would most necessarily believe from the mere desig- 

 nation applied to the species. 



Sand Brittle Star, (Ophiocoma minuta.)— Is there in reality such an Ophi- 

 ocoma as this? if so, I have found it here on several occasions, and generally 

 in company with, or near to, Ophiocoma nerjlecta; or is it rather the young 

 of rosula? This little species, if it is a distinct one, ,is, of all the Brittle 

 Stars which I have as yet met with, by far the most brittle. 



Granulated Brittle Star, (Ophiocoma granulata.) — Now, although this species 

 is not denominated *^common,' it is the commonest of all the Brittle Stars 

 with us. I know that for. one of the so-named 'common' species, {Ophiocoma 

 rosula,) which I met with, I find fifty of these. I remember my young 

 friend, Maggy, and three of her sisters, once bringing me a large cargo of 

 these Stars — nearly two hundred, which they had picked up where the fisher- 

 men clean their lines, and there was not a single specimen of Ophiocoma 

 rosula amongst them; and could these have been got, they would have been 

 brought likewise. 1 remember also being particularly struck with the 

 numerous and brilliant colours displayed by this same cargo, exhibiting, as 

 they did, all those tints, and perhaps more than is possible to name, being 

 from the brightest scarlet down to the deepest black, and scarcely two being 

 alike. Their disks, too, were remarkably varied; some were of a perfect oval. 



