" Egeria," and " Sea Lark," as well as others of historic interest, and at 

 Hamburg I reviewed a large part of the material upon which Hartlaub's monograpli 

 of the East Indian comatulids is based. 



In this report all the information in regard to the crinoids inhabiting the seas 

 from the East Coast of Africa to Japan is brought together, though only species 

 in the Indian Museum collection are discussed in detail. Further information in 

 regard to Australian species is contained in my work on the " Recent Crinoids of 

 Australia," while tlie African species are discussed in my " Recent Crinoids of the 

 Coasts of Africa." 



The references and the synonymy as given will be found to be ample, \\hen 

 used in connection with the bibliography appended. The references given are not 

 necessarily to the first appearance in print of the name, but are usually to the first 

 adequate description. Many of the names ran for some years as nomina nuda 

 before any description was given with them ; in most cases it has not been 

 considered necessary to cite these as they may readily be found by consulting my 

 paper on " The Nomenclature of the Recent Crinoids." 



In conclusion I wish to express my deep appreciation of the honour which has 

 Ix'cn done me by the authorities of the Indian Museum in entrusting me with the 

 working out of their valuable collections. By the study of this material I have 

 been able to acquire an insight into the crinoid fauna of the Indian Ocean which 

 on account of the present rarity of recent crinoids in collections, and of the 

 meagre literature on the group, could have been obtained in no other way. 



The illustrations in this work have been carefully chosen with a view to 

 supplementing those given in the " Challenger " Reports, as well as to elucidating 

 the new .species. The figures are all semi-conventional ; that is, the arms and 

 pinnules of the animals are arranged in a definite and arbitrary manner so that all 

 difficulties due to the distortion of the actual specimen are overcome. Drawings 

 from the animals as they are have proven in very many cases to be pei'fectly 

 useless for comparative purposes, no matter how well executed, and have led to 

 no end of trouble, as the somewhat complex synonymy of many species graphically 

 shows. It is quite impossible to compare a figure of a species showing the arms 

 curled up dorsally with one of a closely related species with the arms entangled 

 in a mass over the disk, or with the side view of a third depicting the arms 

 partially opened out. The comatulids especially have suffered at the hand of the 

 artist, so much so that very many species are illustrated only by drawings which 

 may represent any one of half a dozen forms equally well. Owing to their curious 

 ecological position as passive scavengers depending upon a food supply which 

 ordinarily is showered down upon them much like the falling of rain, but a very 

 slight divergence from a given form is permitted, and hence the general external 

 form of all the species is approximately the same, no matter how wide the differ- 

 ence in all the details may be. It follows naturally, therefore, that pictures of the 

 whole animal must be drawn with the most elaborate attention to these details, 

 even if their emphasis should, as it sometimes does, mar the general artistic effect. 



