NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM. 127 



This is perhaps the commonest, but at the same time one of 

 the handsomest of our "brittle-stars." It is very abundant on 

 the rocky portions of our coast, and is taken from low- water 

 mark to thirty-five fathoms, and even deeper water, according 

 to the nature of the bottom. On the Durham coast its peculiar 

 habitat is about twenty to twenty-five fathoms : from this depth 

 large masses of Alcyonium digitatum are brought up by the fish- 

 ing lines : these in many cases are covered with this species of 

 brittle-star, which possibly preys upon the zoophyte. In its 

 young state it is very plentiful on the sponges, which encrust 

 the dark tidal caverns found in our Magnesian Limestone rocks. 



Genus. AMPHIURA, Forbes. 



1. Amphiura filiformis (Mutter). (Thread-rayed Brittle -star). 



Ophiocoma filiformis, Forbes. Brit. Starfishes (1841), 



p. 40. 

 Amphiura filiformis, Sars. Bidrag til Kundsk. om Mid- 



dlehavets Littoral Fauna, p. 84. 



Northumberland and Durham coasts, frequent from deep 

 water, G. H. 



This species is generally distributed along our coast, and in 

 considerable numbers. It is seldom indeed that a dredge comes 

 up from a suitable bottom (mud and sand) without fragments of 

 the rays being obtained : owing however to its excessive fragility, 

 it is rarely obtained in a perfect state. It is abundant off Seaham 

 in about twenty-five to thirty fathoms. I have never obtained 

 it from the fishing lines, the principal medium by which we have 

 been made acquainted with so many forms of marine life from 

 our sea : it is not surprising, therefore, that it should, during so 

 many years, have escaped notice, though it is by no means un- 

 common. The Rev. A. M. Norman was the first to record its 

 presence on the Durham coast, having obtained fragments from 

 the stomach of haddocks. It was next dredged off Seaham in 

 twenty-five to thirty fathoms on a soft bottom, in August, 1861. 

 Since this time it has invariably occurred in dredging from a 

 similar depth and bottom. "With us it appears to be found only 



