CEPHALOPODA. — BERRY. 209 



Except for the "Challenger" investigations, so little serious 

 work has been done on the Australian Cephalopod fauna since 

 the pioneer voyagers, and so much of the early work is uncer- 

 tain and halting, even when judged by the prevailing stand- 

 ards of its period, that the subject is in much confusion and 

 needs careful elucidation by someone having access to the 

 older types. For instance, the redescription and figuring in 

 modem fashion of the long list of species " described " by 

 Gray, among them many Australian forms, would be a 

 genuine service to science, and one far more deserving the 

 gratitude of students the world over than any such contribu- 

 tion as the present one of mine can ever be. The worker with 

 the Australian fauna is constantly handicapped and dis- 

 couraged by the impossibility from the literature alone of 

 accurate definition of so many of the older species. In the 

 littoral groups particularly he cannot always escape a lurking 

 fear that in describing a " new " species he is but adding 

 another name to the burdened synonymy, however much he 

 may feel that he cannot do otherwise without further aug- 

 menting the general uncertainty and confusion. 



At any rate, few regions of equal extent in the world have 

 a Cephalopod fauna so poorly known as is that of Australasia. 

 For this reason, if no other, the present collection is of notable 

 value, and while it can be regarded as only a beginning of the 

 work which must be done, its investigation has seemed to the 

 author worthy of the utmost care and attention within his 

 power to bestow. 



Perhaps the most surprising incident concerning the collec- 

 tion is the comparative scarcity of the two usually so abundant 

 genera. Polypus and Loligo, together with the almost com- 

 plete absence of Sejnolidae. To find more Opisthoteuthis than 

 Polypus, twice as many Enoploteuthis as Loligo, and no 

 Euprymna, is, at the least account, unexpected. 



With but one, or perhaps two, exceptions, none of the 

 ■ species obtained by the "Challenger" were taken by the 

 " Endeavour." 



VII. — New Taxonomic Terms Proposed. 

 Taxonomic terms proposed for the first time in the present 

 _j)aper are as follow : — 



Enoploteuthis galaxias, new species. 

 Calliteuthis miranda, new species. 

 Loligo etheridgei, new species. 



Austrossia, new subgenus of Rossia, with R. {A.) 

 australis as type. 



