362 



cality yet known. He says in a letter : — " I dredged the true digi- 

 tate of Montagu in Rothsay Bay in 1844. At that time I could 

 have got any number of specimens, though it was confined pretty 

 nearly to one spot in shallow water. They broke themselves up so 

 that it was impossible to keep them entire ; I, however, made a 

 drawing of one at the time, which I now send for your inspection." 

 Mr. Alder further states that he had received specimens from Mr. 

 Barlee, dredged in Birterbuy Bay and at the Arran Isles, on the 

 west coast of Ireland. 



In 1845 Mr. Alder again met with this species in Torbay ; and 

 in January 1854 the Rev. Charles Kingsley " collected many living 

 specimens on the beach, near Torquay, washed ashore after a heavy 

 gale." 



In the ' Contributions to the Fauna of Falmouth ' for 1853, by 

 Mr. W. P. Cocks, this Synapta is figured and described, but not 

 very minutely. " The specimens procured measured from 2^ to 

 4^5- inches in length, and about ± inch in diameter. Found in the 

 blue mud and sand, Helford ; plentiful in particular localities ; Fal- 

 mouth, very rare." 



The Synapta digitata ranges southward to the Mediterranean, 

 and seems to be very common on the shores of the Adriatic near 

 Trieste, since J. Miiller speaks of finding the " molluskigerous sacs " 

 in upwards of 70 individuals *. By the kindness of Dr. Hartmann 

 of Berlin, we have received examples from the same locality. It was 

 not found by Prof. Edward Forbes in the iEgean ; the specimens 

 distributed by him were taken by Mr. MacAndrew in Vigo Bay, on 

 the north-east coast of Spain, in the year 1849. Last year (1857) 

 we accompanied Mr. MacAndrew in a second dredging excursion to 

 the same coast, and obtained numerous examples of the Synapta in 

 10-fathom water, a few miles below the town of Vigo ; they had been 

 previously found in shallow water, on the quarantine ground, about 

 twelve miles higher up the bay. The specimens were small, none 

 exceeding 6 inches in length and \ inch in diameter. In colour 

 they were dull purplish red, slightly darker in front and on the back, 

 and marked with five pale bands, indicating the longitudinal muscles 

 which answer to the lines of suckers (or ambulacra) of the other 

 Echinodermata. The skin was also mottled with minute red spots, 

 produced by epidermal papilla?. We preserved every specimen we 

 could find, hoping to detect the " molluskigerous sacs " in some new 

 phase of their development ; but in this we were entirely disap- 

 pointed. The intestines of the creature were filled with inorganic 

 mud, in which we detected an occasional Diatom or Rhizopod, but 

 nothing more. When placed in basins of sea-water, they showed 

 their tentacles freely, and most of them remained expanded when 

 preserved in spirit. They were very sluggish, and did not evince 

 much disposition to vomit their interiors or to break up into frag- 



* U. S. digitata und iiber die Eizeugung von Sclmecken in Ilolothurien. 

 4to. Berlin, 1K.V2. 



