58 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



gious numbers, of every conceivable variety of colouring ; specimens 

 were not unfrequently obtained with one arm of a totally different 

 colour from the other four — for instance the disc and four arms would 

 be uniform grey, and the fifth arm would be yellow ; there was also a 

 fine variety with the arms and part of the disc of a rich brownish- 

 crimson, the rest of the disc being occupied with a brilliant yellow 

 star), Asterias ruhens, Crilrena ocidata, Solaster papjoosa (very 

 abundant, and sometimes reaching a very large size), Asterina gibbosa 

 (not very common). Echinus escule^itus, E. miliaris (both very com- 

 mon). Curiously enough I failed to obtain any Holothurians, although 

 I cannot but believe that they are to be found on the rough bottom in 

 deep water. My attempts to work over this part carefully were, how- 

 ever, foiled by the sea gettiug up suddenly, and rendering it futile to 

 attempt to work over rocky ground. 



Coelenterata. — The Actinozoa were represented by the Sea Ane- 

 mones, already described, and by the usual Alcyonium digitatum, which 

 of course abounds in the rough gronnd. All the specimens I obtained 

 varied from white to deep flesh-colour : none of the orange-coloured 

 variety were taken. The Hydrozoa were represented chiefly by the 

 Calyptoblastea ; I have have as yet only cui'soiily examined the large 

 mass of material I have collected, but I find that my list includes at least 

 thirty species ; in a future Paper I hope to give a full list of them. Of 

 the other members of the group, the only species observed were Rhizo- 

 stoma puhno, Aureliaaurita, Pleurobrachia pileiis, Kudi PI. pomiformis. I 

 think the paucity of the pelagic Hydrozoa may be at least partly ex- 

 plained by the facts that the wind was almost invariably off shore 

 whilst I was staying at Greystones, and that the sea is open and the 

 tidal currents very strong off the coast. The free-swimming forms 

 ■ would thus be carried along by the currents, and kept well out at sea 

 by the winds. 



Polystornata. — Eepresented chiefly by the commoner species of 

 Calcareous sponge, Sycon ciliatum (very large and abundant), and 

 LeuGosolenia botryoides, and amongst the Siliceous sponges by the 

 protean Salichondria panicea, which was for the most part of the 

 orange-coloured variety. 



Protozoa. — I made no attempt to catalogue the members of this 

 sub-kingdom, and hence the only forms which I noted were the 

 various Foraminifera which were adherent to the zoophytes ; these 

 belonged chiefly to the genera Lagena, IS[onionina, Polystomella,. 

 Rotalina, Globigerina, and Miliolina. 



When it is considered that the foregoing list is compiled merely 

 from hasty notes, taken while in pursuit of a special object, and can- 

 not be regarded as more than a veiy rough approximation to a full list 

 of the fauna, it will be apparent that the Marine Invertebrate fauna 

 of this part of the coast offers as many attractions to the zoologist 

 as does the surrounding country to the lover of lich and beautiful 

 scenery. 



