BY H. FARQUHAR. 305 



Lord Howe Island, forms a distinct and well-marked subregion. 

 I exclude Lord Howe Island, for although it is part of the New 

 Zealand area (situated on the New Zealand Plateau) and the 

 affinities of its terrestrial fauna and flora are strongly New 

 Zealandian, its marine fauna is largely, if not wholly, Australian. 

 Our knowledge of the Echinoderm fauna of New Zealand is 

 far from complete Very little systematic collecting has been 

 done, and the dredge has hardly been used at all. No doubt 

 many new and interesting forms still remain to be discovered, 

 and when our valuable oif-shoi'e fisheries are developed and the 

 littoral zone becomes thoroughly explored the richness of the 

 fauna will be largely increased. We have here in New Zealand 

 all the conditions favourable to the development and subsistence 

 of a rich and varied littoral marine fauna — genial climate, a 

 broad belt of littoral fringing the land, great extent of coast line 

 with many sheltered bays and harbours, numerous shell-banks 

 and rocky reefs clothed with rich and varied marine vegetation, 

 and great diversity of habitat caused by the variety of the 

 geological structure of the land. And what appears to me to 

 add immensely to the interest attaching to our fauna, and makes 

 its elucidation so exceedingly important, is that we have here in 

 New Zealand a set of physical conditions which do not obtain 

 elsewhere — namely, a group of islands which are neither oceanic 

 nor continental, but rather intermediate in character, rising from 

 a great submerged plateau, which has been the scene of immense 

 changes during Tertiary times, and is separated from all the great 

 continental areas by deep and wide oceans. 



List of New Zealand Echinoderms. 



CRINOIDE^. 



C0MA.TUL3;. 



]. Antedon alternata. 



A. alternata, Carpenter, 1888, "Challenger" Rept., Vol. xxvi., 



p. 179. 



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