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A List of Australian Starfishes. 



By the Eev J. E. Tenison Woods, F.G.S., E.L.S., 



President of the Linnean Soc, N.S.W., Hon. Member of the 

 Adelaide Phil. Soc., &c, &c. 



A list of Australian Starfishes has long been a desideratum 

 amongst naturalists. It has been rather difficult to obtain, 

 because of the scattered way in which the various species 

 peculiar to our coasts have been described. The British 

 Museum Catalogue of Gray is very imperfect, and the 

 same may be said of Miiller & Troschel's System der Asteriden 

 (Braunshweig, 4to., 1842, with twelve copper plates.) Agassiz's 

 Memories on the subject have never been completed, and at 

 the present day there is no good general work on Starfishes. 

 Quite recently (1878), M. Edmond Perrier, Professor of Zoology 

 (Mollusca and Zoophytes) at the Museum of Natural History 

 in Paris since 1876,. has published a very interesting memoir on 

 the geographical distribution of Starfishes (Nouvilles Archives 

 du Museum, 2nd series, vol. 1, p. 1.) The nature of the essay 

 does not permit of any definition of species or genera, but he 

 gives lists of names which will be found very useful to the 

 inquirer. It is pleasing to observe also that he makes 

 flattering mention of the work of Captain Hutton, of New 

 Zealand, the only naturalist who has dealt with the subject in 

 Australasia. In dividing the Pacific region into four provinces 

 Professor Perrier makes the Australian region one and gives 

 us credit for 46 species. I am enabled to increase the number 

 to some extent in the list which I subjoin, but I am fully aware 

 how imperfect it must be since more than 70 have been deter- 

 mined by me in the various Australian collections, public and 

 private, and from specimens found by myself. It will be seen 

 also that I am able to afford information as to the habitat of a 

 very few of the species named, but I propose to follow this 

 brief paper with a much more detailed one, in which I shall 

 furnish bibliographical references. I venture, however, to 

 hope that this very brief enumeration will give some help to 

 students and naturalists who may desire to deal with the 

 subject. I shall be very glad to receive further communications 

 from any one on the subject, who may know of Australian 

 species not enumerated here, so as to make my future list as 

 complete as possible. 



