7858 



JRaJiata. 



nearly all pure white,— just under the ledges of the rocks at low-water mark. On the 

 other side of the river, at the slip or pier to which the railway ferry-steamer plies, they 

 are numerous, hut here they are not only white, hut often of a fine deep buff colour: 

 this, moreover, is one of the dirtiest parts of the river, and they are seen sticking to 

 the side of the slip, at and above low- water mark. The white variety is also rarely 

 taken at New Brighton. In the Dee, however, both white and buff varieties of great 

 size are met with on Hilhre Island, the only rocky part of the Dee Estuary, — uot the 

 " Mersey Estuary," as at p. 23 (Act. Brit.), and again at p. 104. 



Sagartia miniata. Tolerably abundant at Hilhre Island, where it fringes the 

 under ledges of the rocks, just above low-water mark, in hanging festoons. 



Sagartia Troglodytes. This is one of onr most common species. I doubt if any 

 are found at Birkenhead now; but lower down the river, at Egremont, — at the mouth 

 of the river, off New Brighton, —and between the estuaries of the Mersey and Dee, 

 at Leasowe, — they are numerous. I have never calculated how many of the a to X 

 varieties we possess, but they are not few, 6 {Aurora) perhaps being the most 

 frequently met with. The same may be said of the west side of Hilbre Island. 



Sagartia viduata. This, next to Actinia Mesembryantbemum, is our rarest 

 anemone, but may generally be found at Hilbre Island, — not, however, in the 

 Mersey. 



Actinia Mesembryanthemum. I consider it as not a little remarkable that this 

 anemone should be so rare with us — perhaps more so than if it were altogether 

 absent. Mr. Price once took one somewhere on our shore, and in 1854 several were 

 taken at Hilbre; but, although a shore-hunter of some years' standing now, I have 

 never found it, nor am I aware of any being found since I came to Liverpool. You 

 remark (Act. Brit. p. 181), on the authority of Mr. E. L. Williams, that the Mersey 

 estuary is the only place on our coast in which he has not taken this species, which he 

 attributes to the foulness of the water. Now in this I cannot agree. If it were 

 merely the foulness of the water, why should we find Actinoloba Dianthus in profusion, 

 both opposite the landing-stage and higher up the river? Moreover, those delicate and 

 beautiful animals, the nudibranchiate Mollusca, are in gi*eat numbers and variety all 

 along the shore, and one would certainly imagine that foul water sufficient to offend 

 the "Mes." would altogether extinguish them, You go on to say, " In the neigh- 

 bouring estuary of the Dee the former (Mes.) is common, as usual." This, however, 

 is a mistake. As I observed before, the estuary of the Dee offers but small space for 

 such animals to flourish, and although the little rocky island of Hilbre is amazingly 

 rich for its size (see 4 Annals,' Sept. I860), nevertheless the "Mes." is not among its 

 riches, its occurrence there being a rarity. In fact, points of geographical distribution, 

 such as this, cannot be referred to any single condition, such as the foulness of the 

 water, but are among the most obscure questions in Natural History, like the range 

 of the nightingale in England. Why, too, should we have in the Mersey a Dorid, 

 Doris proxima (and also in the Dee), which seems to occur nowhere else? and why 

 should Doris aspera, its close ally, be absent here? Why should a little rock-pool at 

 Hilbre Island be the only known habitat in the wide world for Antiopa hyalina? not 

 once taken by chance, but three times at intervals of three or four years? 



Tealia crassicornis. This, which, before the appearance of your book, we always 

 called " coriacea," is our abundant sea-anemone. New Brighton in the Mersey, and 

 Hilbre Island, in the Dee, are the two great colonies of it, and here it attains a size 

 and colouring which are truly magnificent. One cannot walk upon the rocks without 



