1826.] Scientific Notices^^Zoology, 3&3 



its end, and furnished with 10 small short filiform tentacula ; 

 and upon blowing with a tube into the central one, the cavity of 

 the abdomen was dilated, and the air came out of the tube. 



Mr. Miller, in his description of the genus Comatula, appears 

 to have only examined a dried species of the genus, and to have 

 taken his account of the mouth from Lamarck, as he compares 

 it with the mouth of the Crinoidea, which evidently appears to 

 belong to the same group; but he describes the mouth of that 

 family as bein^ " able to be protruded into the form of an elon- 

 gated proboscis." 



On consulting the abdominal integuments of the specimen 

 formerly belonging to Mr. Tobin, now in the British Museum, of 

 Pentacrinus AsteriUf Koenigf (the P. Caput Medusae of MuUer, 

 figured by MuUer, in his Crustacea, Plate 2, f. 8, it very nearly 

 agrees with the abdominal surface of the Comatulce, and the part" 

 marked x in the figure is the true mouth, but I could not discover 

 any traces of the tubular vent ; and on examining the pelvis of 

 the specimens of the fossil species of Crinoidea in the same 

 collection, I was equally at a loss to discover any traces of tha 

 latter part ; and the central or subcentral hole (mouth) in 

 several of the specimens, appears to be produced into a kind of 

 proboscis ; but sometimes that part itself is difficult to discover,^ 

 so that I am not, from the apparent absence of the part, perfectly 

 convinced that it does not exist in the recent animal. I may 

 also observe, that there is no trace in the fossil species, of the 

 radiating muscular lines which surround the mouth of the Coma- 

 tulae. 



The Comatulae, on account of their possessing a double 

 aperture to their digestive organs, should certainly be separated 

 from the Asteroida or the Asteri& of Linne; and as they so 

 greatly resemble the only recent species of Crinoidea at present 

 known, I should certainly place them in the latter family, till 

 specimens of the latter can be observed alive, or which have 

 been kept in spirits, so that the absence or presence of the second 

 aperture maybe distinctly traced. 



The foregoing observation was made on a specimen of Corner^ 

 tula Mediterranea of Lamarck, which appears to be the C. fim-- 

 hiiata of Miller, which is certainly distinct from the C.fimbriata: 

 of Lamarck ; but since that time, having had an opportunity of 

 examining C carinata, Lamarck, or a very closely allied species, 

 I find nearly the same structure, but that the tubular proboscis 

 is bent down towards the centre as if by a suture, so that the 

 openings are very close together, and the muscular ridges are 

 stronger both on the abdominal integument and on the fingers ^ 

 and it appears to be this part which forms the fringe of them ; 

 I may also add, that from the examination of a very 

 mutilated specimen of this genus, the abdominal cavity ,i4 



