A. H. CLARK: THE CRINOIDS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN. 281 



death, the colour liecame a purpUsli brown, or of the hue belongine to many of 

 the gorgonias. 



" According to the modern classification, this singular and elegant produc- 

 tion belongs to that tribe of the polypes which makes floating or movable habit- 

 ations. 



" The Comatulas are the most remarkable members of this family. They 

 have a calcareous or corneous axis. They are not located in a spot, or fixed in a 

 particular place, but move or swim about. 



" The one now presented, instead of a single feather, as usual, consists of ten 

 branches, proceeding from a common base or centre, and diverging outwards 

 with an easy slope, makes a display like a coronet of plumes. Each is about 

 eight inches long, and tapers gradually upward. The fringe-like appendage is on 

 the inside, forming a row of offsets, about half an inch in length. The feathers 

 articulated from the bottom to the top, are composed of parallel circles or rings. 



" From the receptacle or point, where the receptacle exists, at which all the 

 plumes unite, or from which they issue, a set of arms or feelers proceed or project 

 in an opposite direction. These arms or feelers have some resemblance to the 

 antennae of lobsters ; though from their disposition to clasp the things which 

 come into contact with them, they resemble the tendrils of plants. They are 

 nearly of the size of small crow-quills; and vary from half an inch to an inch in 

 length. They are articulated and coloured like the plumes. They are twenty in 

 number; and the extremity of each is armed with a claw like that of a bird or of 

 a cat. Several of the joints or articulations near this terminal claw are also 

 armed on the inner side, with claws of a like organization, but of smaller make. 

 The arms or feelers, undoubtedly, possess the power of expansion or groping, and 

 of seizing or embracing any object they may find. In one of the individuals I 

 possess, a five-rayed asterias is firmly held, and indissolubly bound, by the em- 

 brace of the Comatula. 



' ' This production of the Indian Ocean connects the polypes and radiares 

 with the sepias, and all of them with the ten-footed crustaceas." 



? COMATULA SOLARIS. 



"(Comatula Solaris 1S30. (Leach), Catalogue of the Contents of the Museum of 

 the Royal College of Surgeons of London, part iv, fasc. i, p. 14. No. 85 

 J. B. 



A preparation of a comatulid which was brought by Sir Joseph Banks from 

 the Society Islands is here recorded. 



COMATULES. 

 Comafules 1831. Ferussac, Bull, des sci. nat. (2), vol. 26, p. 183. 



Ferussac records that M. Lemare-Picquot brought home numerous comatu- 

 lids from his voyage to the East Indies and South Africa. 



