430 On Ascension-Island Zoology. 
XLIV.—Report on a Collection made by Mr. T. Conry in 
Ascension Island. 
Fishes. By A. GUNTHER. 
Mollusca. By HE. A. SMITH. 
Crustacea. By EH. J. Mizrs. 
Myriopoda and Insecta. By C. O. WaTERHOUSE. 
Echinodermata. By F. J. Bru. 
Madreporaria. By S. O. Rrpiey. 
SraFF-SurGEON T. Conry, who at present is stationed in the 
Island of Ascension, has kindly forwarded a small collection 
of zoological specimens to the British Museum. And as it is 
always of interest to record the occurrence of animals in an 
oceanic island, the fauna of which must be ever changing from 
physical causes as well as owing to the agency of man, we 
have thought it useful to prepare a list of the specimens col- 
lected, and to give the result of our examination in a collective 
form. ‘ 
FISHES. 
The species were four in number, three of which are addi- 
tional to the list of Ascension-Island fishes given in the ‘Chal- 
lenger’ Reports (Shore-fishes, p. 4), viz. Scorpena Plumiert, 
Ostracion quadricornis, and Salarias vomerinus (=S. textilis). 
The last-named species is said to make jumps twenty times 
its own length. 
MoLuusca. 
The specimens coilected belong to the following species :— 
1. Purpura ascensionis, Quoy & Gaimard ; 2. P. hemastoma, 
Lamarck ; 3. Nerita ascensionis, Gmelin ; 4. Cyprea lurida, 
Linn.; 5. C. spurca, Linn.; 6. Hipponyx antiquata, Linn. ; 
7. Malleus regula, Forskal, ?jun.; 8. Helix similaris, 
Férussac. 
Of these species it is interesting to note that nos. 2, 4, and 
5 are extensively distributed throughout the Mediterranean 
and down the west side of Africa as far as St. Helena. The 
Hipponyx extends along the same African region, but does 
not enter the Mediterranean. ‘This, Purpura hemastoma, and 
Cyprea spurca also inhabit the shores of the West Indies. 
Although it is possible that their range will eventually prove 
still more extensive, (as far as I can ascertain) neither of them 
has as yet been met with further south than St. Helena. 
This distribution may ‘be attributable, as suggested by Dr. 
Gwyn Jeffreys, to the action and mfluence of the great 
