THE INVERTEBRATE FAUNA 
OF THE 
PIRTHYOr FORT oH! 
INTRODUCTION. 
THE following is intended to be the first of a series of 
papers, in which a list of the Invertebrata found in the Firth 
of Forth shall be given. We have been led to undertake this 
work on the suggestion of Sir Wyville Thomson and others, 
who think it is desirable that a fairly complete record of the 
marine fauna of the estuary should be easily attainable by 
those studying the zoology of the eastern coast. The special 
necessity for a list of the fauna of the Forth will be adinitted, 
when it is considered that the estuary has always been the 
favourite and most accessible collecting ground with the 
numerous students of natural history attending the University 
of Edinburgh, and special facilities for its completion exist, 
as many able zoologists have during the last two centuries 
published the results of their work on the same subject. In 
recent years, however, since zoological classification has as- 
sumed its present form, nothing aiming to be a complete revi- 
sion of the Invertebrata of the Forth has been produced, and 
the varying nomenclature of species renders the older partial 
lists of comparatively little use to the student of the present 
day. We are fully conscious that we will not be able to 
catalogue the entire invertebrate fauna in these papers, and 
that even some forms which have been found and chronicled 
may have escaped our notice; but this is the less to be 
regretted, as we hope in subsequent papers to add to our 
lists, or otherwise amend them. } 
A good description of the physical geography of the estuary 
may be found in the introduction to Parnell’s “ Fishes of the 
Firth of Forth” * and elsewhere, so that we shall here note 
only some of its more salient features. 
* Trans. Wern. Soc., vol. vii., p. 162. 
A 
