THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



An animal that we have never seen before comes into our pos- 

 session, and we want more on the label than date and place of 

 capture. Now one must assume a certain amount of knowledge 

 on the part of the inquirer, and he should, after a preliminary 

 examination, be able to judge whereabouts it belongs, whether a 

 starfish, a tunicate, or a coral. I recently had a hunt for the 

 name of an animal belonging to a group with which my acquaint- 

 ance was but slight. At first I naturally tried other people. They 

 all, of course, had a general sort of an idea as to its position, but 

 no one whom I asked could satisfy me. It was not a case of no 

 one knowing, but of my not asking the persons who did know, 

 and so the thing was laid aside, to come up every year or two, 

 when someone would ask me what its name was. The organism 

 in question is a species of coral which occurs in pieces up to about 

 the size of one's hand, and is found at many places along our 

 shores. Till some three years ago all the specimens I had seen 

 were greatly worn, so that it was not much use attempting to do 

 anything with them. Later, however, on one of the Club's excur- 

 sions, when under Mr, Gabriel's directions we dredged off 

 Ricketts Point, near Beaumaris, three living specimens were 

 obtained, of which I secured two. Since then other specimens from 

 the same spot have been obtained, and I am indebted to Mr. O. 

 A. Sayce for a fine example preserved in formalin. One of my 

 own specimens I preserved in spirit and the other I boiled in 

 carbonate of soda to remove the organic matter, and I thus had a 

 beautiful example for examination. Then arose once more the 

 question of identification. 



Now, I have chosen this coral merely as a convenient peg on 

 which to hang a few remarks as to how one may set about 

 hunting for literature on a subject, so that I will insert a few 

 intermediate steps which, as a matter of fact, were omitted in my 

 search. Rolleston's "Forms of Animal Life," edited by Jackson, 

 forms a convenient starting point, as it contains a classified list 

 of literature. Here, under corals, we are referred for classification 

 to a paper by Martin Duncan in the Journal of the Linnean 

 Society, vol. xviii., 1885. This paper is a revision of the genera 

 and higher groups of the Madreporaria, to which our example 

 belongs. There is a glossary at the end of the paper, and by 

 the aid of some common corals one can get an idea of what is 

 meant by most of the technical terms used in their description. 

 Armed with this knowledge, it was seen that the specimen was 

 referable to the genus Plesiastraea. Then came the question of 

 the species, on which Duncan throws no light. On reference to 

 Mr. T. Whitelegge's " List of the Invertebrate Fauna of Port 

 Jackson and the Neighbourhood " we see one species of Plesiastrcea 

 recorded from that locality — namely, P. urvillei — and the 

 reference to the original description is given. At the same time 



