502 Miscellaneoufs. 



too much in so small a space. The Notes on Distribution are stated 

 by Mr. Davis to have been mainly prepared from Wallace. They 

 contain a mass of facts in a very small compass, and by their aid 

 the intelligent student will, with the minimum of trouble to himself, 

 be able to " get up " several general questions which the hearts of 

 examiners in zoology love. Nevertheless we should much like to 

 have Mr. Davis's reasons for including the lion among the species 

 peculiar to the Ethiopian Region. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Is Asterias tenuispina, Lamlc, a British Species? 



In reply to Prof. Jeffrey Bell's inquiry (p. 424) I should say most 

 certainly that Asterias tem(is2nna, Lamk., is not British. I have 

 never seen or heard of an authentic specimen. It is true, as Prof. 

 Jeffrey Bell remarks, that Gray in his ' Synopsis ' writes " Inhab. 

 British coast, Mediterranean ; " but upon what evidence is this asser- 

 tion made? I conclude upon a synonym he gives, '■^ Ast. spinosa, 

 Pennant." What, then, has Pennant to say ? — " Ast. with five rays 

 of almost equal thickness, beset with numerous spines." Five will 

 not do for A. tenuisjnna. Moreover, Pennant does not appear to 

 have seen the form himself. He gives two references — one to Bor- 

 lase's ' Cornwall,' tab. xxv. fig. 18, the other to Linck, tab. iv. no. 7. 

 Borlase is not in my library, but a reference to Linck shows a figure 

 of a five-rayed starfish, certainly not A. temnspina, of which he 

 writes: — " Viva? sunt subcseruleae. Ejusdem speciei duplo majores 

 se invenisse fatetur, primum in Oceano occidentali Hybernico, post 

 juxta Pensans in Cornubio." Here seems to be the origin of Gray's 

 mistaken statement that Asterias tenuispina is found on our 

 coast. Linck's figure and his words " Vivse sunt subcoeruleae " 

 appear to me conclusively to prove that the starfish which he called 

 Pentadactylosaster spinosus regularis was a small specimen of A. 

 glacialis. 



Asterias tenuispina, Lamarck, has six to eight arras and is a littoral 

 form. Such a distinct species could scarcely have evaded discovery 

 if it occurred on our shores. It is a well-known Mediterranean 

 Asterid, which would appear to have had a southern origin. It is 

 said to have occurred in the Madeiran, Canary *, and Cape- Yard 

 Islands, and in the Florida ^ea (Ludvig) ; and also at Bermuda, 

 Abrolhos, Mauritius, Java, Molucca, Australia, and Hong Kong 

 {Perrier). In the Mediterranean it is recorded from many places on 

 the Italian and Sicilian coasts and in the Adriatic. My own speci- 

 mens are from Naples (Staz. Zool.) and Mahon, Spain (SeHor Pedro 

 Antiga), this last being the only known occurrence of the species in 

 the western Mediterranean ; but Quatrefages records it much further 



* It is figured by d'Orbigny from the Canaries, Webb and Berthelot, 

 Hist. Nat. des lies Canaries, Echinodermes, pi. iii. figs. 14-20. 



