2 BULLETIN "6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



I hiui completed speriiil reports on eollections Nos. 2 and 3 when the collection 

 from the V. S. Nationnl Museum, sent by Dr. Richard Rathbun, Assistant Secretary 

 of the Smitlisonian Institution, was received. This is probably the largest and most 

 complete single collection ever assembled from a restricted region (the west coast of 

 Xurtli America). Doctor Rathbun at one time contemplated working up this 

 material, and to that end made a preliminary sorting of specimens in several groups. 

 He was, however, prevented by routine work from carrying out his plans. 



In view of this new accession, it was deemed best not to publish separate papers 

 on the Alaskan and Californian collections, but to combine all in one report. Under 

 each s])ecies the source of the material is in all cases given in the lists of speci- 

 mens examined, so that it is easy to ascertain from which of the several collections 

 the information was derived. 



The material proved to bo richer than was anticipated, and it has been neces- 

 sary to i.ssue the work in two parts, of whic'h this is Part 1. Part 2 will contain 

 an account of the order Forcipuliita. 



In 1907 I examined, through the courtesy of Mr. Samuel Henshaw and Dr. 

 H. L. Clark, the extensive collection of stai-fishes in the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. This collection contains many tjqies and 

 includes numerous genera not in the national collection. Prof. A. E. Verrill, of 

 Yale Vniversity, New Haven, Connecticut, kindly showed me many of his types, 

 especially those of his new genera of Goniasteridse, Astropectinidte, and Gonio- 

 pectinidas. 



At AVashington I examined all of the national collection, with a view to 

 determining, if possible, the relationships of genera and families, a subsidiary task 

 of the present work. 



Since man}^ genera had never been assigned a definite type, I made a list of all 

 the genera of ^Vsteroidea with their type-species in order to render the nomenclature 

 of the present report as stable as possible. This necessitated tlrawing upon the 

 resources of the following libraries: those of the National Museum and Smithsonian 

 Institution, the Congressional, Army Medical, Philadelphia Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the jjrivate library of Dr. C. Hart 

 Mcrriam. The nomenclature follows without compromise the rules of the Interna- 

 tional Code. It has been necessaiy in a few cases to alter familiar names, because 

 they have long been incorrectly applied. It is not anticipated that this course 

 will greatly inconvenience anyone. 



In the preparation of this paper several objects have been kept in mind. These 

 are as follows: 



1. To describe and figure all forms known to occur in the region covered by 

 this report in such a manner that reference to the scattered literature will not be 

 necessary. It has not been possible, however, to figure a few species, as specimens 

 were not accessible: 



2. To throw as much light as possible on the morphology, especially whenever 

 this promised to lend aid to classification. A good many forms, especially in the 

 .\stropectinidw and Goniasterida?, have been examined with this object in view: 



3. To revise the classification of genera and families and to work toward as 

 natural a system us possible : 



