Zoology. 185 



usually looked upon with disgust, and regarded as highly 

 dangerous. 



TUNICATA. 



The Tunicates still remain one of the least known groups 

 of the local fauna, and in the present state of our knowledge 

 no attempt can be essayed at giving an account of them. 



R. P. 

 INVERTEBRATA. 

 MOLLUSCA. 

 Marine Mollusca. 



The coast of Ireland has been divided for zoological 

 purposes into six districts, of which the Antrim and Down 

 shores belong in part to two — to District I, which extends 

 from Malin Head in Donegal to St. John's Point in Down ; 

 and to District II, which stretches from St. John's Point 

 to Carnsore Point in Wexford. Compared to most of 

 the Irish waters, our district has been well explored. The 

 more important work may be divided into three epochs : 

 I. Work done by William Thompson and his contemporaries, 

 both shore-collecting and dredging, and published in his 

 Natural History of Ir€la7id in 1856. 2. Dredgings carried 

 out about Belfast and Strangford Loughs by G. C. Hyndman, 

 George Dickie, E. Waller, and J. G. Jeffreys in 1857-1859, 

 under grants from the British Association, and published in 

 the Reports of the Association for those years. 3. Dredgings 

 carried out by G. W. Chaster, L. E. Adams, J. R. Hardy, 

 R. Standen, and R. Welch around Rathlin Island in 1896- 

 1897, and published in the Irish Naturalist. The results 

 obtained in Ulster up to 1888 were summarized by R. LI. 

 Praeger in Proc. B.N.F.C for that year; while the publica- 

 tion in 1900 by A R. Nichols of his List of the Marine 

 Mollusca of Ireland gives a complete account of the subject. 

 The coast-line of the district presents a considerable variety 

 of conditions. In both Down and Antrim there are extensive 

 sandy beaches ; in other places shingle prevails. Estuarine 

 conditions and mud-flats are not uncommon ; and while low 

 rocky shores prevail in Down, high cliffs are a feature of the 



