PART 5 A MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CRINOIDS 209 



Sir William Plerdman (1894) once took 12 from the bottom of a buoy anchored off 

 the end of the breakwater at Port Erin, Isle of Man, Mr. W. I. Beaumont (1900) re- 

 ported it from the bottom of a hulk at Valencia, Ireland, Mr. S. Kemp (1905) found it 

 on the bottom of hulks at Fabj', and Mr. A. J. Smith , in company with Mr. Stephen 

 Pace (1904) found several on the bottom of a coal hulk in the Cattewater, Plymouth. 



While watching the picking up of the buoys in the district of La Iloug'ue, near 

 Cherbourg, Malard (1892, 1893) once saw the chain of one of then\ literally covered 

 with feather stars. 



Hornell (1895) mentions that one day when he was out lobster-potting with an 

 old fisherman at Jersey, in the Channel Islands, the first pot pulled up was fairly 

 encrusted with this species. Herdman (1906) and Chadwick (1907) say that at Port 

 Erin it often occurs in considerable numbers clinging to the creels used by fishermen 

 for catching crabs and lobsters, being found more abundantly after stormy weather. 



At Roscoff feather stars, almost always of large size and of a very bright red 

 carmine, are found beneath the stones of greater or lesser size which are turned over 

 in the search for ascidians and other creatures (Perrier, 1873). 



The Rev. George Gordon (1852; quoted by Peach, 1864) mentions ha\-ing met 

 with a very mutilated specimen from the stomach of a haddock taken in the Moray 

 Firth in 1850, and Mr. W. Ramsey Smith (1891) records another as having been taken 

 from a lemon sole {Pleuronectes microcephalus) caught in the Moray Firth in October, 

 1890. Mr. C. W. Peach (1864) found one in the stomach of a fish, kind not stated, 

 at Wick, Caithness. 



There are a few records of fragments of comatulids of other species having been 

 taken from fish, but these are so rare, even in localities where feather stars are especially 

 abundant, that it seems clear the fish swallowed them with other food or seized them 

 unwittingly. It is perhaps significant that the instances cited above are all from a 

 region where comatulids are very scarce and the fish therefore have little opportunity 

 to become familiar with them. No crinoid is known to form a normal part of the 

 diet of any fish or other large animal. 



From the Shetlands we have no information regarding this species other than records 

 of capture. Professor Forbes and Mr. Goodsir found several in 18 meters on La- 

 minariae, while Mr. Philip B. Mason (1876) in June, 1875, dredged some in Bressay 

 Sound on a rocky bottom, also in about 18 meters. 



Sir John Dalyell (1851) speaks of this species as being less rare in the Orknej-s 

 than in most other parts of Scotland. 



On the British shores of the North Sea the rosy feather star is for the most part 

 rare or entirely absent. On the coast of Northumberland it is rare (Hodge, 1865). 

 Messrs. Alder and Hancock obtained specimens from the CuUercoats fishing lines 

 (Hodge, 1872), and in June 1913, two arms were dredged 6 miles east of the Long- 

 stone, off CuUercoats (Storrow, 1913). It has been taken in Embleton and Beadnel 

 Bays (Hodge, 1872). When dredging off Dunstanborough Castle in July 1S64, in 

 company with the Rev. A. M. Norman and Mr. D. O. Drewett, Mr. G. Hodge obtained 

 three spechnens from a rocky ledge in about 46 meters. This, taken in connection 

 with Mr. Embleton's remark that it is "not rare" led Mr. Hodge to suppose that it 

 is local in its distribution; but he says (1872) that certainly it is very r.\re on the 

 Durham coast, for so far as he knew only one specimen had ever been captured there, 

 by Mr. G. S. Brady and himself, off Seaham, in about 55 meters. 



