ALCYONARIANS. — BRIGGS. 61 



REPORT ON THE ALCYONARIANS. 



Part I. 



I . — Introducti on. 



Previous to the publication of Wright and Studer's Report* 

 on the Alcyonaria collected by the " Challenger," our know- 

 ledge of the Alcyonarian Fauna of Australia was confined 

 mainly to forms from western and north-western localities, 

 and from the shallow waters of Queensland and Torres Strait. 

 This knowledge is based on collections obtained by the 

 " Herald "2 and "Fly,"'^ the Antarctic Expedition under 

 Ross*, the German Circumnavigatory Expedition in the 

 " Gazelle,"^ and to the zoological collections made in the 

 Indo-Pacific Ocean during the voyage of the " Alert. "^ The 

 " Challenger " Expedition extended this field, and also 

 collected and recorded a number of forms from the southern 

 and south-eastern shores of Australia. Since then fresh 

 instalments of new species have been added by Prof. S. J. 

 Hickson^, who described the collection of Alcyonaria brought 

 together by Mr. J. B. Wilson during the biological survey 

 of Port Phillip, Victoria ; and by Prof. W. Kiikenthal^, who 

 has recorded a number of species from Western Australia. 

 Finally, Prof. J. A. Thomson and Miss D. L. Mackinnon^ 

 published a detailed accoinit of the Alcyonaria, which were 

 gathered together by the " Thetis " Expedition during 

 trawling operations within the one hundred fathom line off 

 the coast of New South Wales. 



The Alcyonarians described in the present Report were 

 trawled by the " Endeavour " on the eastern and southern 

 coasts of Australia in depths of from fifteen to three hundred 

 fathoms. The collection includes twenty-seven species, of 

 which twenty-four are referable to known species distributed 

 among fifteen genera ; the remainder have required the 

 establishment of three new species. 



1. Wright and Studer— Chall. Rep., Zool., xxxi., 1889. 



2, 3, 4. Gray— Proc. Zool. Soc, 1862 and 1872 ; Id., Ann. Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., (3), v., i860 ; (4), ii., 1868 ; (4),iii., 1869 ; Id., Cat. Lithophytes in 

 Brit. Mus., 1870. 



5. Studer — Monatsber. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1878. 



6. Ridlev— Report Zool. Coll. H.M.S. " Alert," 1884. 



7. Hickson— Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict., (n.s.), ii., 1890, pp. 136-140. 



8. Kiikenthal — Die Fauna Siidwest-Australiens, iii., 1, 1910, pp. 3-108. 



9. Thomson and Mackinnon — Mem. Austr. Mus., iv., 13, 1911, pp. 

 661-695. 



