BO Neal ale ler a iii as 
Mr. W. H. Baily on a new Pentacrinite. 25 
ordinarily living in the open fields, should find its way to such 
a depth beneath the surface of the ground, and multiply to such 
an extent as to be able to construct, by the united labours of hun- 
dreds, immense sheets of web, stretching through all the deserted 
subterranean galleries. It seems that this little creature, at the 
same time that it shifted its abode, must also have acquired new 
instincts, becoming social and gregarious in its habits, and thus 
departing from the manners of most of the spider tribe, which 
are usually solitary, except when quite young. It may be said 
‘that numerous and large spiders’ webs are often met with in 
other dark underground places besides coal-pits (as cellars, caves, 
&c.) ; but these are always constructed by larger species, each 
individual living separately, and having its own web ; the spiders 
forming them may also mostly be referred to the genus Tege- 
naria, to which our common house-spider belongs. 
Bradford, May 30, 1860. 
ViI.—Description of a new Pentacrinite from the Kimmeridge 
Clay of Weymouth, Dorsetshire. By Witi1am H. Batty, 
F.G.S. &c.* 
[With a Plate. | 
Tue beautiful fossil Crinoid forming the subject of this commu- 
nication received a MS. name from the late Prof. Edw. Forbes, 
who dedicated it to his friend the Rev. Osmund Fisher, by whom 
it was procured from the Kimmeridge Clay near Weymouth, and 
liberally presented, with numerous other interesting fossils from 
the neighbourhood, to the Dorchester County Museum. On 
visiting that Museum, I found that it had never been described or 
figured, and have therefore drawn up the following description, 
with illustrative figures, of this interesting species. 
Class ECHINODERMATA. 
Order Crinorpea. Genus Pentacrinus, Miiller. 
Pentacrinus Fisheri, Forbes, n. sp. PI. I. fig. 1 a. 
P. calyce parvo levi; articulis basalibus clypeiformibus, quinque ; 
articulis radialibus amplis, quinque; articulis brachialibus amplis, 
triangularibus, quinque ; brachiis decem bifurcatis, articulis cunei- 
formibus, alternis ; pinnulis articulis octo ; columna pentagonale ; 
ramulis articulis contiguis. 
Diagnosis.—Calyx small, smooth, and composed of five shield- 
* Communicated by the Author; having been read before the Dublin 
University Zoological and Botanical Association, December 16, 1859. 
