24 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Amongst others who have joined the Committee during 

 the past 34 years are Dr. W. Evans Hoyle, then at Manchester, 

 Professor Benjamin Moore, then at Liverpool, and Arnold T. 

 Watson, F.L.S., of Sheffield. 



The Committee commenced its work by dredging and 

 trawling expeditions in Liverpool Bay from tug-boats and 

 other small steamers, and by examining exhaustively the 

 shore fauna at Hilbre Island and other points in the estuaries 

 of the Mersey and Dee at low tides. 



As the result of the first year's work the Committee 

 published an 8vo. volume of 370 pages, illustrated with plates 

 and maps, and entitled " The First Report upon the Fauna of 

 Liverpool Bay and the neighbouring Seas." This volume placed 

 on record nearly 1,000 species, which was increased to nearly 

 1,850 by the time of the Report to the British Association, 

 published in 1896, and has since reached approximately 2,500. 



Hilbre Island is certainly one of the most interesting spots 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of Liverpool, from a biological 

 point of view, and has long been well known to the local 

 naturalists on account of its comparatively rich marine fauna. 

 The rocks at the northern end of the island are covered at and 

 about low water mark by a large and varied assemblage of 

 invertebrate animals, and form a particularly favourable 

 locality for certain Hydroid Zoophytes, Actinia?, Polyzoa, and 

 Nudibranchs. 



The interesting reef- building gregarious Annelid, Sabellaria 

 alveolata, is found in abundance round some parts of the shore 

 at Hilbre Island, usually near where sand and rock adjoin. 

 It sticks the sand grains together to form the tubes in which 

 it lives, and so produces masses of a porous, crisp, but brittle 

 material, which crumbles to a certain extent when walked 

 upon, but which is constantly being renewed and has its 

 injuries repaired by the living worms within, and must, there- 

 fore, have a very considerable effect in protecting the rocks 



