VI. 



ZOOLOGY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



The following notes on the zoology of the Bermudas are 

 based on personal observations, and on collections made dur- 

 ing a brief sojourn on the islands during the past summer, in 

 company with a class of students from the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences. But little systematic work, other than that in the 

 departments of ornithology, ichthyology, and botany, had 

 hitherto been done in this remarkably interesting, and typi- 

 cally oceanic, island group, and it was thought that a more 

 critical survey might bring out facts of general interest to the 

 zoological student, and throw some additional light upon the 

 intricate subject of zoogeography. In the results obtained I 

 have not been disappointed. The exuberance of animal life 

 has j'ielded much that has proved to be new to the systematist, 

 while certain remarkable peculiarities in the distribution of a 

 number of well-known types of animals open up vistas in geo- 

 graphical distribution which appear to me at present to recede 

 into darkness, and, perhaps, tend to draw only more closely the 

 veil over this mysterious subject. 



The specimens noted or described in the following pages 

 were largely obtained through dredgings, which were carried 

 on as well in the outer water as in the smaller interior sounds 

 and lagoons. As might have been anticipated the greatest 

 profusion of animal life was found on the edge of the growing 

 reef itself, the shoals surrounding the cluster of rocks on the 

 northern barrier known as the North Rock. The wealth of 

 forms occurring here almost transcends belief; unfortunately, 

 the limited time at our command and the state of the weather 



