DEPARTMENT OF MARINE INVERTEBRATES. 203 



showing the variation of temperature by ten-day means for the five 

 years preceding 1886, is given for each station, and there are also six 

 charts of isothermal lines connecting all the stations. This work will 

 be carried on during next year. 



At Wood's Holl the curator continued his studies of the parasitic 

 copepods of the Atlantic coast, completing and submitting for publica- 

 tion a report upon six species, four of which are new to science. All of 

 the species are figured more or less in detail. After leaving Wood's 

 Holl he completed the identification of the undetermined species of 

 Echini, in the collection of the Museum, for that purpose visiting the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass., where he was 

 given the opportunity of making comparisons with the unrivalled col- 

 lection of Mr. Alexander Agassiz, by whom personal assistance was 

 also kindly rendered. The Echini obtained by the steamer Albatross 

 in the region of the Bahama Islands during the spring of 1886 were 

 also identified, and have been included in a general catalogue of the 

 collection of Echini belonging to the National Museum, to be published 

 in the Proceedings. Since completing work upon the Echini the cura- 

 tor has begun to revise the collection of star-fishes in the same manner, 

 and during the spring of 1886 made a complete overhauling of all the 

 species collected by the Fish Commission on the Atlantic coast of the 

 United States north of Cape Hatteras. Most of these species had been 

 determined by Professor Verrill, but it was found convenient to make 

 a selection of the specimens intended for the reserve series, and to dry 

 large numbers of specimens in order to reduce the bu>k of the alcoholic 

 materials. Many specimens of star-fishes from other sources have also 

 been identified. 



The study of Fish Commission collections of marine invertebrates 

 elsewhere than at the National Museum has been continued by the 

 same persons enumerated in the report of last year. Prof. A. E. Ver- 

 ril, of Yale College, has had general supervision of the collections made 

 from Cape Hatteras northward, but has been occupied mainly with the 

 Mollusca, Echinodermata, and Anthozoa. He has been assisted spe- 

 cially by Miss Katharine J. Bush, who has also reported directly upon 

 some portions of the mollusca. Prof. S. I. Smith, of the same college, 

 has been charged with the study of the Crustacea, and all collections 

 of this group, except a few of the minor divisions, are submitted to him. 

 Other collaborators during the year have been Prof. L. A. Lee, of Bow- 

 doin College, on the Eoraminifera ; Prof. Edwin Linton, of Washington 

 and Jefferson College, and Prof. B. F. Koons, of the Storrs Agricult- 

 ural School, on the internal parasites of fishes ; Mr. James E. Bene- 

 dict, of the steamer Albatross, on the Annelids ; Mr. J. Walter Fewkes, 

 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, on the free Medusae. 



The Hon. Theodore Lyman, of Brookline, Mass., has kindly offered 

 to examine and report upon the ophiurans from the western coast of 

 America in addition to those collected by the steamer Albatross south 



