BARBADOS-ANTIGUA REPORTS 5 



Zool., vol. 54, No. 6, pp. 175-263, July, 1911. [On p. 201 under 

 Leporidse the heading Oryctolagus cunicuhi^ should read Lepus 

 europaeus, and Lepus europaeus in the last line on the page should 

 read Oryctolagus cuniculus.] 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 



The island of Barbados has long been well known as a locality 

 for recent crinoids. The first recent stalked crinoid discovered 

 was a specimen of Isocrinus asteria from Martinique described 

 by Guettard under the name of "Palmier marin" in 1761; but 

 in the very next year Ellis described another specimen of the 

 same species from Barbados. A second individual from Bar- 

 bados was described by J. S. Miller in 1821, together with one 

 from Nevis. 



The second known recent stalked crinoid was also from Marti- 

 nique, and was described by d'Orbigny in 1837 under the name 

 of Holopus rangii. It had only four rays, and was altogether 

 such an extraordinary form that Dujardin and Hupe in 1862 

 suggested that possibly it was a barnacle rather than a crinoid. 



In 1871 Mr. (later Sir) Rawson W. Rawson, the Governor of 

 Barbados, sent to Dr. J. E. Gray a drawing of another specimen 

 of this species which was published by the latter under the name 

 of Holopus rawsoni. The actual specimen Gray never saw. 



During his residence at Barbados Sir Rawson Rawson was so 

 fortunate as to obtain, in addition to several specimens of Holo- 

 pus rangii, examples of Isocrinus decorus and Endoxocrinus 

 parrce, and of several species of comatulids. 



In 1858 d'Orbigny described from a recent breccia at Guade- 

 loupe, which also contained a human skeleton, a fragment of a 

 crinoid which he called Bourgueticrinus hotessieri. In 1871 the 

 United States Coast Survey steamer "Hassler" dredged some 

 specimens of a closely related, possibly the same, species off 

 Sandy Bay, Barbados, which were described by Count Pourtales 

 in 1874 under the name of Rhizocrinus rawsonii. 



Comatulids were first reported from the West Indies in 1825 

 by the Reverend Lansdown Guilding of St. Vincent, who men- 

 tioned them incidentally in connection with the description of a 

 new pentacrinite which he called Encrinus milleri. In this paper 



