392 pRor. r. JEFFEEX BELL ON THE [May 1, 



1. On the Echinoderms collected during tlie Voyage of 

 H.M.S. 'Penguin' and by H.M.S. ' Egeria/ when 

 surveying Macclesfield Bank. By F. Jeffrey Bell, 

 M.A.^ Sec. K.M.S. 



[Eeceived March 5, 1894.] 

 (Plates XXIII.-XXVII.) 



Mr. P, "W. Bassett-Smith, Surgeon E.N., was, fortunately for 

 marine zoology, appointed after her cruise bad begun to H.M.S. 

 ' Penguin,' Capt. W. U. Moore, who was under instructions to 

 survey parts of North-west Australia and the Macclesfield Bank, 

 Mr. Bassett-Smith had already had experience not only in collect- 

 ing in the Eastern Seas, but of the sympathy his captain had in 

 his work, while on this cruise he had the further advantage of 

 the co-operation of the chief engineer, Mr. J. J. Walker, who, 

 when Mr. Bassett-Smith joined the ship, had already commenced to 

 make his extensive collection of Insects — a collection so extensive 

 that he was able to give over to the Museum no less than 12,000 

 specimens. 



The Trustees of the British Museum have already expressed ^ 

 their appreciation of the services rendered by Messi's. Bassett- 

 Smith and J. J. Walker while on the ' Penguin," and it now only 

 remains for the zoologist to do his work of description and 

 cataloguing. 



After the 'Penguin' was paid off Mr. Bassett-Smith had offered him 

 the opportunity of paying on board H.M.S. ' Bgeria,' Commander 

 A. M. Field, yet another visit to Macclesfield Bank ; and it was 

 well he did so, for it was on this occasion that he obtained the 

 most interesting and valuable part of his collection of Echinoderms. 

 He secured, for example, a specimen of a new species of Eudiocriims 

 allied to E. indivisus, the type of which is now in the private collec- 

 tion of Mr. W. Percy Sladen ; Ophiopteron elegans, known hitherto 

 only in the Brock collection, was obtained in several dredgings ; and 

 Opiiiocrene cenigma is a type of Ophiuroid which is perfectly new. 

 Interesting and valuable as this collection of Echinoderms is, it 

 has offered peculiar difficulties in working out. I have never before 

 had passing through my hands a collection containing so large a 

 proportion of young specimens, or, in other words, forms in which 

 the specific characters stated in the diagnoses are not distinctly 

 marked ". In some cases the series has been sufficiently long and 

 gradual to enable me to assign quite young examples to what I 

 think is their correct species, but I have had to query a larger 

 proportion of my determinations than I can allow to pass without 

 this word of explanation, and a number of specimens have been 

 merely referred to their genera. 



1 [Annual] Return [Parliamentary] British Museum, 1893, p. 83. 

 ^ I find that the essential part of these remarks is true also of the Crustacea. — 

 14th June, 1894. 



