SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



239 



Maple, in Summer State. 

 (See page 237.) 



ECHINUS ACUTUS IN SCOTLAND. 



By William Dow. 



T)ERMIT me to point out that in the October 

 ■*■ number of " The Annals of Scottish Natural 

 History," Mr. George Sim, an Aberdeen naturalist, 

 writes on the recent captures 

 of this beautiful Echinoderm 

 on the Scottish east coast. 

 To elucidate the subject, let 

 me quote briefly what the 

 writer says: "Some of the 

 specimens were taken off the 

 Pentland Skerries, and two 

 were brought in by one man, 

 which had been procured 

 forty miles off Aberdeen. On 

 August 23rd last, I [Mr. Sim] 

 had the pleasure of seeing 

 another specimen in the 

 possession of Mr. Thomas 

 Scott, which he had caught 

 on Smith's Bank, while con- 

 ducting experiments in the 

 interests of the Fishery Board 

 of Scotland." This statement 

 needs amplification. Since the 

 days of Dr. Fleming, who 

 first made this rare animal 

 known to British science, 

 under the name of Echinus 



miliaris, five specimens have 

 been landed at Aberdeen. The 

 first one occurred in Novem- 

 ber, 1894, thirty-eight miles 

 east by south of Aberdeen, on 

 shell and sand bottom ; the 

 second and third in March, 

 1895, thirty-seven miles east 

 by north of Pentland Skerries, 

 in thirty-two fathoms of water, 

 on shell sand ; the fourth is 

 that caught by Mr. Thomas 

 Scott, on Smith's Bank, in 

 August, 1895 1 the nit h i R 

 October, 1895. The capture 

 of four of the specimens is due 

 to Mr. Herbert Howell, fisher- 

 man, who took them alive, 

 along with such species as 

 green-pea urchin (Echinocyamus 

 pusillus), and purple-tipped egg 

 urchins {Echinus miliaris) from 

 the Pentland Skerries. I have 

 several other small species, 

 with long spines, which I 

 cannot identify. Would any 

 of your readers undertake to 

 name them for me ? 



124, Loch Street, Aberdeen. 



Maple, Winter State, showing Dead Fruit Stalks. 

 (See page 217.) 



