Mr. T. Davidson on Recent Terebiatulse. 27 



life have hitherto been few in number and of difficult attainment ; 

 still the thing is possible, and no doubt will be attended to more 

 particularly in future by those scientific observers who may be 

 dredging in favoured localities. Thus, to take a well-known 

 instance, we may remind the reader that during a dredging tour 

 with ]\Ir, M'Andrew along the coast of Norway, in the summer of 

 1855, the then young and rising naturalist, Mr. Lucas Barrett, 

 was enabled to make some important observations relative to the 

 animals of Terebratulina caput-serpentis, Rhynchonella psittacea, 

 and Crania anomala, observations which, although filling but two 

 pages of the 'Annals' for 1855, cleared up some important con- 

 tested points relative to the power or othenvise of the animal to 

 protrude its cirrated so-termed oral arms. We are now much in 

 want of some observations on the animal of Lingula in life, as 

 anatomists have not agreed as to the function of some of its 

 muscles, as I was able to show in pages 58 and 61 of my Mono- 

 graph of Scottish Carboniferous Brachiopoda (1861). 



Another question which has, during the last ten years, at- 

 tracted much of the attention of several experienced observers 

 is that which relates to the geographical distribution of the 

 various species, as well as to the marine depths they inhabit or 

 prefer; and this subject has been carefully considered and ela- 

 borated from existing information, in the recent publications of 

 Prof. Suess* and Mr. L. Reeve f. It is an inquirj^, however, 

 that will demand much further investigation, and one which 

 time and fortunate circumstances can alone satisfactorily accom- 

 plish; for Brachiopoda, though, no doubt, generally very abun- 

 dant in their respective haunts, are often much localized and 

 difficult to obtain, so that it was not until the last few years that 

 great accuracy in this particular was considered absolutely ne- 

 cessary ; and it is probable that some of the data in our posses- 

 sion cannot be implicitly relied upon, having been at times noted 

 down from the simple recollections of Mr. Cuming : and we might 

 requote what jMr. Reeve has already mentioned, viz. that Mr. 

 Calvert has asserted having dredged T. fibula in Bass's Strait, at 

 a depth of 200 fathoms, the Strait itself being ascertained not 

 to be deeper in any part than from 70 to 75 fathoms ! The 

 great encouragement given to the "Dredging Committee" by 

 the British Association is certain to secure much accuracy ; and 

 we cannot pass over in silence the very excellent "Report" on 



* " Ueber die Wohnsitze der Brachio|)oden," Proceedings of the Academy 

 of Sciences of Vienna, pp. 185-248 (1859); also the excellent analysis 

 of the above bv M. Deshaves, Bulletin de la Soc. Geol. de France, Jan. 

 1861. 



t "A Revision of the History, Synonymy, and Gcogra})hical Distribution 

 of recent Tercbratulic," Annals, 18(51. and Conchologia Iconica, 1861. 



