Thorny Lobster [Palinurus vulgaris) in British Waters. 69 



and Stebbing vouches for its presence at Salcombe and Torquay, in Devon- 

 shire, 1 at the Isle of Wight it " appears to be a rare species in the Island. 

 Specimens are very occasionally taken by fishermen in Sandown Bay 

 (G. T. Woods)." 2 



Bounding the South Foreland, Palinurus vulgaris makes its appearance 

 in the North Sea, for Dr H. C. Sorby, in MS. notes relating to the Crustacea 

 of Essex, says of it that he has " never obtained any in trawling or dredging, 

 but it is caught in traps off Walton-on-Naze." 3 The most northerly authentic 

 record I have noted for the east coast is that of a fine specimen taken in 

 a trawl off Flamborough Head and presented to the Grimsby Museum. 4 

 The species is unknown off the coast of Durham and Northumberland, and 

 Canon Norman and Mr Brady, in their recent catalogue of the Crustacea of 

 those counties, include it in a list of the species which, " well known in the 

 south of our islands are wholly absent from the north-east coast of 

 England." 5 



On the west coast of Britain the distribution is more general than on the 

 east. Abundant in the neighbourhood of Lundy Island, Palinurus vulgaris 

 occurs at various localities in Wales and on both sides of the Irish Sea. 

 Northwards, however, records become more scarce. In the Firth of Clyde 

 it is occasionally found. Henderson says : " Off Campbeltown (Martin). 

 Mr Brook obtained a single specimen in Loch Fyne. It is occasionally 

 seen in fishmongers' shops in Glasgow." 6 Specimens from this area 

 also exist in the collections of the Koyal Scottish Museum, in the 

 Millport Marine Station (Mr K. Elmhirst), and in the Bute Museum, 

 Rothesay. Mr Archibald Burn Murdoch informs me that the Thorny 

 Lobster occurs, but not commonly, in the Sound of Mull, off Drimnin, in 

 trammel nets set for common Lobsters, and a specimen from " near 

 Tobermory " is in the M'Lean Museum, Greenock. Here also is to be found 

 an example "from near the Island of Skye," in all probability a specimen 

 which Dr Thomas Scott of Aberdeen presented several years ago." From 



1 T. R. R. Stebbing, in Victoria Histories of the Counties of England: Devonshire, i., 

 1906, p. 262. 



2 F. Morey, A Ckiicle to the Natural History of the Isle of Wight, Newport and London, 

 1909, p. 286. 



3 T. R. R. Stebbing, in Vict. Hist., Essex, i., 1903, p. 208. 



4 A. Smith, quoted by Stebbing, in Vict. Hist., Yorkshire, i., 1907, p. 300. 



5 A. M. Norman and G. S. Brady, Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Northumberland, Durham, 

 and Neivcastle-on-Tyne (n.s.), iii., 2, 1909, p. 10. 



6 J. R, Henderson, Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow (n.s.), i., 1883-1886 [1887], p. 325. 



7 For the data regarding the Greenock specimens, 1 am indebted to Mr Charles 

 Brunton, Greenock. 



