' NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM. 89 



The remaining four had occurred previously in dredgings from 

 the Shetland Islands, and are referred to at greater length in the 

 Transactions of the Linnean Society, vol. XXIV, Part III. 



There is not much to remark relative to the general distribution 

 of the species. The prevalence of the Lagenm at every point which 

 has been dredged is an interesting fact ; all the British species 

 having been taken, most of them in considerable numbers. The 

 great abundance of the Dentatince and Vaginulince on some portions 

 of the Northumberland coast is worth recording, especially as the 

 same localities furnish large numbers of Polymorphince, with the 

 luxuriant "stag-horn" outgrowths (P. tubidosa, D'Orb.), thereby 

 seeming to indicate an unusually rich feeding- ground, or the 

 existence of other conditions favourable to their growth. 



In reporting upon the Mollusca obtained in the dredging ex- 

 cursions of 1863, Mr. Alder remarks* that the fauna of our coast 

 ' ' upon the whole, approaches more nearly to the Scandinavian 

 than to that of the South of England." An examination of the 

 Rhizopoda quite confirms this view ; and, as we have a means of 

 comparison in Messrs. Parker and Jones's paper on "Foramini- 

 fera from the Coast of Norway, "t it may be interesting to trace 

 the analogy. The number of species given in the paper alluded 

 to is 26, and of these 18 belong also to our list; or, including 

 some of the more permanent varietal forms, 45 would represent 

 the Norwegian fauna, of which over 30 are equally at home on 

 our coast. The occurrence of Lagena distoma and Nonionina 

 Scapha is important in its bearing on this connection, as both are 

 prominent forms in the Scandinavian seas, and neither have as 

 yet been taken off Britain except on the north-eastern and north- 

 ern shores. 



One of the greatest difficulties the naturalist of the present day 

 has to contend with is to be found in the entangled state into 

 which the nomenclature of many divisions of the animal king- 

 dom has fallen. Formerly, authors were but little accustomed to 

 respect the labours of their predecessors, even when of their own 

 country ; but when such researches had been made public through 



* Transactions of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field-Club. Vol. VI, p. 180. 

 t Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 2nd Series. Vol. XIX, p. 273. 



