196 Transactions. — Zoology. 



not live near low-water mark, and seems to have a very 

 limited range. 



The only other known species of this southern genus is 

 E. rarituberculatus (Bell, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, 

 vol. xx., p. 403), the locality of which is not known. We 

 may expect to find it in New Zealand, and collectors should 

 look out for specimens. It may be easily overlooked, how- 

 ever, living specimens being doubtless very similar to small 

 specimens of E. chloroticus. 



I have a strangely-deformed test of E. chloroticus, which 

 shows how even a sea-urchin is capable of adapting itself to 

 new conditions. The upper part of the test was broken away 

 when I picked it up on the beach. It had a strange irregular 

 appearance, and when I counted the ambulacral and interam- 

 bulacral areas I could only find four, instead of five, the usual 

 number. On rubbing away the spines, however, I found that 

 one of the poriferous zones only extends to the summit of a 

 prominent excrescence on one side of the test about 12mm. 

 from the actinosome ; beyond this there is a shallow depression 

 where the two interambulacral areas meet and form one 

 broad, flattened zone. It had evidently been jammed amon" 

 the rocks, and, being 'unable to grow in its regular rounded 

 shape, had formed the above-described abnormal test. 



Echinus magellanicus, Philippi. 



This species ranges throughout the southern ocean and to 

 the Philippine Islands, and in depth from 10 to 1,600 fathoms. 

 It appears to be pretty generally distributed around the New 

 Zealand coasts. I have taken specimens with the dredge in 

 Wellington Harbour, from a rocky bottom, in about 10 fathoms 

 of water. It has been found fossil in Pliocene formation at 

 Shakespeare Cliff, Wanganui. 



Echinocardium australe, Gray. 



In the Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 2, vol. vii., 1851, 

 p. 131, Dr. Gray described specimens of Echinocardium from 

 Australia and specimens from New Zealand as two distinct 

 species— #. australe and E. zealanclicum— -but Mr. Agassiz 

 has united them under the name E. australe (" Eevision of 

 the Echini," p. 109). No doubt the typical E. australe does 

 occur here (Professor Hutton mentions a large specimen from 

 Chalky Inlet, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xi., p. 307), but the 

 form which is exceedingly abundant in Wellington Harbour 

 appears to be at least a well-marked variety, and when a good 

 series of both forms have been carefully compared it is not 

 improbable that they may be found to be distinct species. I 

 have taken many specimens with the dredge in Wellington 

 Harbour — in fact, the dredge never comes up from a muddy 



