1903-1904-] Millport Marine Biological Station. 73 



Newbigin, in the following words : " We may say generally 

 that our littoral fauna is of two types, — the Mediterranean 

 type, which predominates on the South and West, and the 

 Northern or Scandinavian type, which predominates on the 

 North and East. In addition, on the West we find certain 

 peculiar animals which are not truly members of our fauna, 

 but are brought, more or less passively, by the Gulf Stream. 

 Animals which occur all round our coasts may generally be 

 assumed to be common to the Scandinavian and Mediterranean 

 faunas, while our East Coast rarities are Scandinavian types. 

 The differences between East and West are often exceedingly 

 striking, and cannot fail, for example, to astonish any one 

 passing from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde." ^ 

 Perhaps in no group are these differences more noticeable 

 than in the Crustacea, and I have much pleasure in giving 

 here the following remarks on that group, kindly sent me 

 by Dr Thos. Scott of the Scottish Fishery Board, one of our 

 honorary members, who is a specialist as regards the Crustacea, 

 particularly of its minuter forms. Dr Scott says : — 



" I shall begin with the Decapoda, and in this group a 

 few, and in some cases rather curious, differences are ob- 

 servable. For example, the swimmer crab {Portunus holsahis) 

 is one of the most common of the Forth crabs, while there is 

 no really satisfactory record of its occurrence in the Clyde. 

 I do not think you will fiind it in Dr Henderson's list of the 

 Clyde ' Higher Crustacea ' : Mr Alex. Patience has found a crab 

 somewhat like P. holsahis, but I do not remember if it turned 

 out to be that species. Then there is Gonoplax rhomboides, 

 which in recent years has been found not to be so very rare 

 in the Clyde, but not a single specimen has yet been observed 

 in the Forth. Macropodia longirostris (Fabr.) and InacMis 

 dorynchus are both moderately common in the Clyde, while 

 as yet there is no Forth record for them. Other two species 

 belonging to this group may also be referred to. Pandalus 

 bonnieri and P. propinquus, but especially the first, appear 

 to be moderately frequent in the Clyde, more so than was 

 believed a few years ago ; yet no trace of either the one 

 or the other has been found in the Firth of Forth, or, for 



' 'Life by the Sea-Shore: An Introduction to Natural History,' by Marion 

 Newbigin, D.Sc. (Lond.), pp. 164, 165. London : Sonnenschein k Co. 1901. 



