Aquarium. 



8799 



Marine Captures in the Vicinity of Torquay. — Last year you did me the honour 

 to publish (Zool. 8263), for the benefit of naturalists whose studies lay in the same 

 direction as my own, a list of the Actiniae, &c, which I took during a holiday at 

 Tenby. This summer I selected Torquay as a suitable spot for researches in Marine 

 Zoology, and the following is an account of my captures in shore-collecting and 

 dredging during a fortnight or so in the middle of July. The best hunting-grounds 

 for the former are Goodrington Sands, Livermead Head, and the point in the vicinity 

 of the gas-works ; for the latter, off Berry Head and Hope's Naze. With very few 

 exceptions most of the objects are suitable for the marine aquarium ; the others 

 are interesting either for the microscope or as subjects for the study of comparative 

 anatomy. Some of the creatures are comparatively rare, while others are of course 

 excessively common, but nevertheless not to be despised on that account. Considering 

 that that delightful and fashionable watering-place has been ransacked over and over 

 again by amateurs and trade-collectors, I am far frcfm being dissatisfied with the 

 results of my captures. I was much struck by the scarcity of Actinia Mesembry- 

 anthemum, and by the abundance of Bunodes crassicornis and Anthea Cereus. It 

 reminded me strongly of the remark of Dr. Collingwood (Zool. 7859), in noticing a 

 similar occurrence at Liverpool, and assigning for the cause the rule of Nature in cer- 

 tain kingdoms, which sometimes holds good, that " the stronger of two nearly-allied 

 species should prevail over the other until it became dominant, and absolutely excluded 

 it." For the same reason I cannot help thinking that, as it continues to get scarcer, 

 A.Mesembryanthemum will become more highly prized than it now is. The absence, 

 in the list, of more numerous species of Acalepha, is remarkable, as the weather was 

 gloriously fine during my stay, the sea, with one or two exceptions, unusually calm, 

 and my perseverance with the surface-net unwearying. 



List of Objects in Marine Zoology, chiefly suitable for the Aquarium, taken at 

 Torquay, July, 1863. (Marked * were taken by the dredge) : — 



Poriphora. 



Halichondria caruncula 

 H. panicea 

 Grantia nivea 

 Pachydermatisma Johnstoniae 



Actinoida. 



*Actinoloba Dianthus 



Actinia Mesembryanthernum 



„ „ var. d. fragacea 



Anthea Cereus 



Bunodes gemmacea 



B. crassicornis 

 *B. coronata, var. plebeia 

 *Adamsia palliata 

 *Sagartia parasitica 

 *S. viduata 

 *S. miniata 

 *Zoanthus Couchii 



Alcyonaria. 

 *Alcyonium digitatum 



Acalepha. 



Chrysaora cyclonota 

 Cydippe pomiformis 



ECHINODERMATA. 



*Ophiura texturata 



*Ophiocoma rosula 



*0. bellis 



*Uraster rubens 



*Solaster papposa 



*Asterias aurantiaca 

 Asterina gibbosa 

 Cucuraaria pentactes 



*Ochnus brunneus 



*Echinus miliaris 



*Spatangus purpurea 



