Echinodermata, by Prof. ¥. J. Bell. 441 
Echinus elegans, D. & K. 
(Pl. XIX. figs. 2 and 3.) 
I refer to this species four specimens from 250 fath.; but 
I have had great difficulty in making up my mind about 
them, for the Museum is very poorly provided with examples 
of what Sars called an “ overordentlig sjeldne Art,” though a 
good many would seem to have been collected by the ‘ Por- 
cupine.” The four examples now before me are all small, 
and there would be no reason to suppose that they are sexually 
mature were it not that Wyville Thomson * has put on record 
the existence of asmall (‘‘ pony ”’) race of Echinus norvegicus ; 
I am quite unable to settle the question, as the specimens 
were all dried before being sent to me f. 
I cannot see on these specimens the “ beautiful vermilion 
bands, extending from the apex towards the ambitus on both 
sides of the bare median vertical line,” which Prof. A. 
Agassiz states to be the feature by which Z. elegans may be 
“ recognized from its congeners ¢; but I do not see the same 
bands in a beautiful and perfectly preserved specimen (62 
millim. in diameter) which the Trustees have lately acquired 
from the Bergen Museum, and which was taken in the Hardan- 
gerfjord at a depth of 150 fath.; and they agree well enough 
with the diagnosis of Diiben and Koren. They cannot be 
expected to agree very closely with the figure given by those 
distinguished naturalists, on account of the marked difference 
in size. 
It often happens that a minute histological character goes 
a long way in settling doubtful questions of resemblance, and 
the fact that the spicules in the suckers of these small speci- 
mens are exactly similar to the straight-backed C-shaped 
spicules of the tube-feet of an undoubted C. elegans has done 
much in deciding me as to what name to apply to these speci- 
mens. I greatly regret that, though I have made several 
efforts, I have not yet succeeded in obtaining examples of 
what other workers in Echinology have called £. elegans §. 
* ‘Depths of the Sea,’ p. 117. 
+ It often happens that one has to lament the fact that while spirit 
has been saved the specimens have been for some purposes lost. 
t¢ Rey. Ech. p. 491. 
§ With a single exception of some specimens from Norway, sent me by 
a curator of a museum who had not a very large series, and who had so 
named some examples of E. acutus. Since the above was sent to press 
the Rey. Dr. Norman has, with his usual generosity, sent me a number of 
specimens of Echinus for examination. An inspection of them leads me 
to think that I have rightly ascribed the four specimens now under dis- 
cussion to FE. elegans.—Novy. 7, 1889. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. iv. 32 
