Clare Island Survey. 



47 

 ARCHIANNELIDA AND POLYCHAETA. 



By E. SOUTHERN, B.So. 

 Plates I-XV. 



Read June 9 and December 8, 1913. Published July 15, 1914. 



INTRODUCTION. 



For the purposes of this paper the Clare Island area stretches from Blacksod 

 Bay on the north to High Island, off Aughrus Point, on the south, and its 

 seaward boundary is the 50-fathom line. This area is larger than that which 

 has been adopted by the majority of workers in the present Survey, and was 

 selected for the following reasons. In the first place, I had small opportunity 

 of doing shore-collecting on Clare Island and in Clew Bay itself, whilst, 

 owing to reasons unconnected with the Survey, very large shore-collections 

 were made a few miles to the north, in Blacksod Bay. Secondly, a large 

 collection from Ballynakill Harbour, Bonn Harbour, and the adjacent open 

 sea, made by the officers of the Irish Fisheries Branch, was available for 

 study. These collections, together with those made in Clew Bay itself 

 during the course of the Survey, probably constitute the largest mass of 

 material ever assembled for the study of the Polychaeta of a limited area, 

 and the list of species which follows is considerably larger than any similar 

 one hitherto published for such an area. 



A list of the species is given below, and their local distribution roughly 

 indicated under a number of headings. These faunistic sub-areas may now 

 be defined, and some indication given of the nature of the shore or sea-bottom, 

 and of the size of the collections from each district. A much more complete 

 description of the area, and of the fauna characteristic of each part of it, will 

 be given in Part 67 of this series. 



I. Blacksod Bay. — Five visits, each of a week's duration, were paid to 

 Blacksod Bay during the period of low spring-tides of September, 1909- 

 1911, and March, 1910-1911. In the course of these visits the eastern shore 

 of the Mullet peninsula, from Barranagh on the north to Carrigeenmore on 

 the south, was thoroughly investigated. The shore here consists of stretches 



K.I. A. PROC, VOL. XXXI. A 47 



