THE KECENT CKINOIDS OF AUSTKALIA, 



By Austin Hobart Clark. 



Introduction. 



The Trustees of the Australian Museuixi have done me the 

 honour of entrusting to me for study their entire collection of 

 Australian Crinoids. 



The Crinoid fauna of the Australian coasts is of the greatest 

 interest, not alone from tlie abundance and variety of its com- 

 ponent species, but from its similarity in certain ways to that of the 

 Jurassic and later horizons of Europe. Previous to the receipt 

 of this collection I had only been able to examine occasional 

 specimens, r-epresenting, however, numerous species, from Aus- 

 tralia, mostly from Sydney, together with the collection made by 

 the German ship " Gazelle " at various points on the. west and 

 north-west coasts. It was therefore with the greatest antici- 

 pation that I undertook the study of the collections of the 

 Australian Museum, a study which has assisted in elucidating a 

 number of hitherto obscure points and in giving me a mucdi 

 clearer idea of the Crinoid fauna of Australia as a whole. 



I wish to record my appreciation of the kindness shown me by 

 the Trustees of the Australian Museum and by the Curator, Mr. 

 R. Etheridge, Junr., and to thank these gentlemen for the 

 privilege I have enjoyed in being permitted to examine their 

 very extensive and valuable collections. 



At the time this collection was received I had at hand the 

 Ci-inoids belonging to the University of Copenhagen, those of 

 the Berlin Museum, including several of Professor Johannes 

 Miiller's types, those of the Indian Museum, the specimens 

 collected by the German steamer " Gazelle," and by the Indian 

 steamers " Investigator " and " Golden Crown." In addition the 

 enormous collections of the United States National Museum were 

 under my care, as well as the large mass of material brought 

 together by the United States Fisheries steamer " Albatross," 

 wht-n working among the Philippine Islands. Altogether the 

 available material comprised some dozens of Australian speci- 

 mens, and some hundreds of specimens of specie.s occurring in 

 Australia, so that I had ample facilities for making comparisons 

 between the individuals in llie Australian Museum collection 

 and valuable material belonging to other institutions. 



I happened to be in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the time 

 that my friend, Dr. Hubert Lyman Claik, was studying the 



