214 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM VOLUME 1 



solution from Major Lang's comraunicalion as a set-off to disappoinlnu-nts elsewhere. 



Taking exception both to Mr. Hughes' view of the supposed increase in abundance 

 of this species and to Major Lang's statement that it is confined to comparatively deep 

 water, where it lives among rocks, Mr. Thomas R. R. Stebbing, commented (Novem- 

 ber 16, 1876) on what he characterized as one or two rather hasty conclusions in these 

 letters upon the rosy feather star. He wTote that although Major Lang argued from 

 his experience in Torbay that its habitat is strictly defined as comparatively deep water 

 and among rocks, he himself had taken it during the previous year in Salcombe Estuary, 

 in shallow water, and not among rocks, but among the Zostera marina (eel-grass) to 

 wiiich numbers of the young stalked form were sticking. The well-known marine zoolo- 

 gist, Mr. Hincks, he said, told hun that he had taken both the adult and the stalked 

 forms in great abundance in the same locality more than twenty years earlier. The 

 rapid increase in abundance of this animal since 1873 assumed by Mr. Hughes, said Mr. 

 Stebbing, was imaginary, for dredgings in the two previous years had yielded the adult 

 form by bucketsful from the neighborhood of the Thatcher Rock. 



At the same time (November 16, 1876) Mr. Himt, who had accompanied Major 

 Lang on his dredging excursions, wrote that he did not think Antedon had been more 

 abundant than usual during the j'^ear in that locality. An entry in an old notebook 

 reminded him that a chance haid near the Thatcher Rock on July 11, 1871, brought up 

 "plenty of feather stars," and since then, during the sLx years he had dredged in Torbay, 

 Antedon had been a very ordinary capture while dredging for other objects of interest. 



He said that the haul under Berry Head on Jidy 25 alluded to by Major Lang was 

 undoubtedly an unusually prolific one, but had it not been for the fortunate discovery 

 by Major Lang of tlie pedunculate form the mere occurrence of an abundance of the 

 adult feather stai-s would have made no impression on his mind and no notice would 

 have been taken of it. Remembering that the Birmingham Natural History So- 

 ciety had taken the young, he mentioned the fact to Major Lang, adding that he had 

 never seen them himself. Next morning he was gratified to hear from Lang that an 

 examination at leisure of the proceeds of the haul had revealed them in quantity. This 

 successful result induced Hunt to revisit the spot near the Thatcher after an interval 

 of six years, and there, as he fuUy expected, Antedon, both adults and unmature, was 

 abundant. With this experience to guide him he later tried a third localitj' where, 

 though the adults were less nmnerous, the stallved young, and every stage of growth up 

 to about an inch in diameter, appeared to him to be even more numerous than at Berry 

 Head or the Thatcher. 



Mr. Walter Garstang (1892, 1894) mentions the rosy feather star as a constant 

 element in the invertebrate fauna of Pljonouth, and IVIr. Stephen Pace (1904) has 

 summarized the records brought together by the various investigators connected with 

 the Marine Biological Association. 



In the Plymouth district this species is extremely abundant in certain small areas, 

 but is practically restricted to these. 



The deepest part of Millbay Channel, which forms a deep pit or hole (Millbay 

 Pit), is remarkable for the abundance of feather stars, the dredge often coming up half- 

 fuU of them (S. Pace; R. A. Todd). It is occasionally found on Asia Shoal (R. A. Todd; 

 S. Pace), and occurs on Mallard Shoal (G. C. Bourne, J. T. Cunningham, S. Pace) and 

 inside the Bridge (S. Pace). It is occasional on Mewstone Ledge, in IS to 27 meters (S. 

 Pace; R. A. Todd), but has not been recorded from outside the Mewstone Ledge (Craw- 



