4 ECHINODERMA OF THE INDIAN MTJSJiUM, PART VII. 



his studies on the collection of the Leyden Museum, redescribing some of 

 MtJLLER's species, and establishing many new ones of his own. 



The ' ' Alert ' ' report by Professor Francis Jeffrey Bell upon collections 

 from Australia, which appeared in 1884, gave a further insight into the Indian 

 Ocean crinoid fauna, while the numerous papers published by Carpenter, 

 especially his " Atelecrinus and Eudiocrinus," " Comatulae of the Hamburg 

 Museum," and his preliminary reports on the stalked and unstalked crinoids 

 collected by the American Coast Survey Steamer " Blake," added greatly to the 

 general knowledge. 



The magnificent "Challenger" monographs published in 1884 (Stalked 

 Crinoids) and 1888 (•' Comatulae ") present an epitome of all that had been 

 previously known concerning these animals, and in addition contain an enormous 

 amount of new data, the result of the epoch-making cruise of that vessel. 

 Although the new forms from the littoral belt are comparatively few, the 

 marvellous richness of crinoid life at the greater depths was demonstrated, 

 especially in regard to the beautiful stalked species included in the genus Meta- 

 crinus. It is rather curious that the "Challenger" did not discover the genera 

 Bathycrimis and Rhizocrimis in the East Indian region ; the latter had been 

 previously reported by Korotneff (1886) from the vicinity of Krakatoa (the 

 reference being unfortunately omitted by Carpenter) , while the former was not 

 known from that region until 1907, in which year no les,s them five species were 

 described ! 



Following the publication of the " Challenger" reports up to 1891 there was 

 a period of quiet, broken by a few local lists by Bell, and an excellent report 

 on the crinoids collected by Dr. John Anderson at the Mergui Archipelago by 

 Carpenter; in that year Dr. Clemens Hartlaub presented his most excellent 

 monograph upon the comatulid fauna of the Indian region, based primarily upon 

 the collections made by Dr. J. Brock at Amboina, a work which is to-day the basis 

 upon which the study of the East Indian comatulids must rest. Though the 

 work is somewhat regrettably limited as to scope, the groups treated are handled 

 in a masterly way, the descriptions of the sjiecies especially being clear and 

 easily understood, which can scarcely be said of most of the descriptions previously 

 published. No comprehensive work upon the comatulids has since appeared, but 

 there have been numerous local lists by Bell, Kcehler, Pfeffer, Dodeklein, 

 and Chadwick , those of the last four authors reaching a standard of excellence 

 remarkable when the difficulties of studying these animals along the lines of 

 Carpenter's classification are considered. 



The stalked crinoids of the Indian Ocean and adjacent seas remained for 

 many years as Carpenter had left them, the only additional records being of 

 two from Singapore {^Metacrinus snperhus and M . steioarti), and one from Japan 

 (previously reported ambiguously by Doderlein) (Metacrinus rotundus) by 

 Carpenter (1885), and of one, a " Challenger" species (Metacrinus inlerruptus) , 

 from the Sahul Bank by Bell (1893). In 1907, however, Professor L. Duderlein 



