3Qg BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM VOLDME 1 



more abundant on the southwestern side, and at the entrance to the passages between 

 the ishinds. The point nearest to Nanaimo at which they have been found is about 

 6 miles away, and about 9 miles from the Station. Most of them have been obtained 

 in water of from 27 to 55 meters in depth. There must be many acres, if not miles, 

 pretty well covered with them. 



In June and July, 1915, Dr. Th. Mortensen found this species to be fairly common 

 near Nanaimo in a place near Ru.xton passage at a depth of about 27 to 46 meters. 



He observed this form swinuning actively after the usual manner of comatulids. 



Occurrence oj the pentacrinoul s.—Froicssor Fraser wrote (1918) that the larvae of 

 tills species become attached to the adults, and Dr. Mortensen (1920) from among over 

 200 specimens took 10 pentacrinoids attached to the cirri. 



History. — Prof. William E. Kitter in a note published in 1902 first called attention 

 to the existence of comatulids on the west American coast; he had obtained a few speci- 

 mens by dredging off San Diego m about 183 meters (100 fathoms). But many years 

 before, on January 5, 1889 (Sta. 2893) the Albatross had first secured this species among 

 the Santa Barbara Islands, dredging it in abundance on February 8 (Stas. 2952, 2954- 

 2956) and 9 (Sta. 2959) of the same year. On all her subsequent cruises on the west 

 coast she met with this species in local abundance everyAvhere, but always m fau-ly 

 deep water. 



Dredging operations carried on at Pacific Grove, near Monterey, had yielded this 

 foi-m, and the myzostomes on some of the specimens secured were described by Prof. 

 Jesse F. McClendon m 1906. 



From the material which bad been accumulating in the U.S. National Musetim as a 

 result of the work of the Albatross, I described in 1907 Antedon perplexa and A. ser- 

 ratissima, both from the coast of Washington. I learned later that Mr. Cloudsley 

 Rutter, the naturalist of the Albatross, at the time of his death had been especially 

 interested in the crinoids, and had conferred upon this species the MS. name of 

 Antedon asper. 



Professor Ritter now sent me the comatulids which he had dredged off San Diego 

 and recorded in 1902. These did not seem to agree either with my perplexa or with my 

 serratissima. It seemed to me at the tune most probable that they represented Hart- 

 laub's tanneri, described from somewhat further south, and under that name I recorded 

 them in 1908, at the same time mentioning the occurrence of a reduplicated first brachial 

 pair in one of them. 



In 1911 Mr. Dan Brown, of Wrangel, Alaska, while fishing on the southeastern 

 side of Etolin Island, brought up a specimen from a depth of 11 meters, the onlj^ one 

 that has ever been obtained other than by dredging. 



The late Prof. C McLean Fraser found comatulids to be abundant in the vicinity 

 of the Biological Station at Nanaimo, when he was director, and Mas kind enough to 

 send me some of them with notes on their occurrence in that region, which notes I 

 published in 1915. He brought out some additional information and noted the occur- 

 rence of the pentacrinoid young in 1918. 



After a reexamination of all the material available, I remarked in 1918 that ser- 

 raiissima is probably only a spinous form of perplexa; but I included with the latter the 

 specimens which had been recorded from Panama and the western coast of Central 

 America by Hartlaub in 1895 and by myself in 1908 under the name of rhomboidea. 

 These are here considered as tanneri. 



