586 MR J. VV. GREGOKY ON THE MALTESE FOSSIL ECHINOIDEA. 



him by the meagre descriptions of the Catalogue Raisonne, or the indistinct figures of 

 Sismonda. Hence it is not surprising that in many cases Dr Wright's conception of a 

 species should not have been the same as that of Continental palaeontologists. As they had 

 access to the types and enjoyed far greater opportunities for the study of the Oligocene 

 and Miocene Echinoidea than those possessed by Dr Wright, their conclusions have 

 been generally accepted. Additional elements of uncertainty have been introduced into 

 Dr Wright's " Table of the Stratigraphical Distribution of the Echinoderms," * as it has 

 been found that he included the evidence of specimens sent from Malta, but which had 

 been collected in Sicily and Egypt ; and, moreover, it appears probable that many of the 

 identifications upon which that Table was constructed were made by Dr Leith Adams 

 without Dr Wright himself seeing the specimens. Hence a revision of this group of 

 Maltese fossils is now desirable ; and an opportunity for this has been afforded by the 

 kindness of J. H. Cooke, Esq., F.G.S., in allowing his large collection of Maltese Echino- 

 derms to be sent to England. As Mr Cooke has preserved the exact horizons of all his 

 specimens, the collection is of especial value. He has further earned the thanks of 

 Echinologists by generously presenting all the new material to the British Museum (Nat. 

 Hist.), where many of Dr Wright's types are now preserved. As it is therefore - possible 

 to check the distribution of the species with little chance of positive error, it has been 

 thought advisable to revise the whole group, as by so doing the evidence it affords as to 

 the correlation of the deposits and as to the past physical history of the Mediterranean 

 basin may be more safely discussed. The determination of several doubtful points has 

 been rendered possible by the kindness of the Earl of Ducie in lending me several of the 

 specimens referred to by Dr Wright. I must also express my best thanks to Sir A. 

 Geikie for the loan of and permission to describe some specimens in the Museum of the 

 Geological Survey, to Dr Woodward, F.E.S., for allowing me to use some new material in 

 the National Collection, and also to Messrs W. Kupert Jones, and Brown for their kind 

 help when examining the " Leith Adams " collection now in the Museum of the Geological 

 Society. 



II. Description of Species. 



Family CIDARIDJE. 



Genus Cidaris, Leske, 1778. 



Species l. Cidaris melitensis, Wright, 1855. 



Synonymy — 



Cidaris melitensis, pars T. Wright, 1855, "Foss. Ech. Malta," Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2), xv. p. 107, 



pi. iv. f. 1. 

 „ E. Desor, 1858, Syn. l£ch. foss., p. 453. 



,, ,, ?A. Gaudry, 1862, Anim. foss. et Geol. Attique, Paris, pp. 440, 441, pi. Ixiii. 



f. 10-15, 

 ,, „ T. Wright, 1864, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, xx. p. 474. 



* Op. cit, p. 490. 



