400 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



at once informed whether the species enumerated is : — " 1. Eesi- 

 dent. Breeds. 2. Eegular summer visitor. Breeds. 3. Eegular 

 autumn, winter, or spring visitor. Does not breed. 4. Occa- 

 sional visitor. Used to breed. 5. Occasional visitor. Never 

 known to breed." Being printed on one side of the paper only, 

 the convenience for scissors and labelling is self-evident. 



An Account of the Alcyonarians collected by the Royal Indian 

 Marine Survey Ship, ' Investigator,'' in the Indian Ocean. 

 By J. Arthur Thomson, M.A., &c, and J. J. Simpson, 

 M.A., &c. ; with a Beport on the Species of Dendro- 

 nephthya, by W. D. Henderson, B.Sc, &c. Printed by 

 Order of the Trustees of the Indian Museum, Calcutta. 



The name of the ' Investigator ' is now well known in the 

 records of Indian oceanic zoology, and the material that it has 

 been the means of bringing home for study is probably still far 

 from being exhausted. The present volume (ii.) is devoted to a 

 description of the Alcyonarians of the Littoral Area, and is a 

 continuation of a previous memoir (Thomson and Henderson, 

 1906) dealing with the Deep-Sea forms. In the Introduction we 

 are told that both Mr. Simpson and Dr. Henderson performed a 

 very considerable portion of this work during their tenure of 

 Carnegie Scholarships and Fellowships, and that the Carnegie 

 Trustees have also defrayed the expense of drawing four of the 

 plates, and of the zinc-blocks made for the text-illustrations. 



The general result as regards geographical distribution of 

 species is that a large number are common to the Indian Ocean, 

 and to such localities in the Pacific Ocean as Borneo, Sumatra, 

 Java, Sulu Sea, Arafura Sea, Banda, Japan, Formosa, Torres 

 Straits, and North-West Australia. This is analogous to the 

 distribution of some terrestrial families of the Insecta. The 

 collection includes 187 species (61 belonging to Dendronephthya 

 or Spongodes), 108 are new, and it has been found necessary to 

 establish four new genera. Besides the textual illustrations 

 there are nine plates, two of which are coloured. 



In these days, when special studies are the most that can be 

 attempted by zoologists, to many the descriptions and illustra- 

 tions of these living forms will prove somewhat of a revelation. 



