BARBADOS-ANTIGUA REPORTS 7 



Pentacrinus caput-medusce [Endoxocrinus parrm], and it was 

 the first ; I am therefore more uncertain about the place where it 

 was procured than I am about the habitat of the Pentacrinus 

 mulleri [Isocrinus decorm] . But I believe that they are all pro- 

 cured on the same bank, which, instead of five or six miles from 

 the shore, as I was first informed, cannot be more than a mile, 

 within the hundred-fathom line." 



From this it is apparent that Endoxocrinus parrce and Iso- 

 crinus decorus occur in relatively shallow water at Barbados as 

 elsewhere in the West Indies. 



THE RESULTS OF THE BARBADOS-ANTIGUA 

 EXPEDITION 



"While a considerable number of species have been described 

 from the Caribbean region our knowledge of the crinoids of that 

 area is still in its infancy, and any information of any kind 

 regarding them is therefore of interest and value. 



To illustrate the paucity of the data regarding the crinoids 

 from the very shallow water in the western Atlantic I may men- 

 tion that, except for Tropiometra picta which is locally abundant 

 from Tobago, Trinidad, and Venezuela to southern Brazil, there 

 are only six records, one from Bahamas {Nemaster iowensis), 

 one from the Tortugas, Florida (Nemaster iowensis, discovered 

 by the University of Iowa's Bahamas Expedition), one from St. 

 Thomas (Antedon dilhenii), one from Dominica (Nemaster 

 iowensis), and two from Brazil (Antedon diihenii and Nemaster 

 sp.). 



We probably already know a majority of the species inhabiting 

 the Caribbean region ; but these have been described from speci- 

 mens long preserved and without notes regarding the details of 

 their occurrence, color, or other points of interest, while in order 

 to understand any animal we must have far more information 

 than that included in a mere description of its differential struc- 

 tural charactei's and one or two records of its occurrence. 



Considering the relative rarity of littoral and sublittoral cri- 

 noids in the Caribbean region and the difficulties attending their 

 capture owing to the roughness of the bottom frequented by them 

 the collection b}^ the Expedition of representatives of this group 



