8 



NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN 



tunity searched the reefs and shoals in the effort to find at 

 least one comatulid. Dredging was also carried on continually, 

 but all efforts were vain, for not a trace of a comatulid was 

 found. Either this species formerly occurred and has now died 

 out, or else its normal habitat is in that inaccessible region of 

 the reef where it is too deep to wade and too shallow and rough 

 to work from a boat; and from this habitat it only accidentally 

 or under unusual conditions comes up into more shallow water. 



Comactinia echinoptera 



Alecto echinoptera J. Miiller, 1841. Ber. Verb. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, p. 183. 

 Comactinia echinoptera A. H. Clark, 1909. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 36, p. 

 498. 



Although Hartlaub devotes two full plates in his account of 

 the ''Blake" comatulids, to photographs of echinoptera (Mem. 

 M. C. Z., 27 pis. XVI, XVII), he has confused so many differ- 

 ent species under that name, that it is not safe to say which of 

 his figures is the true echinoptera. One can only wait until Mr. 

 A. H. Clark has completed his work on "West Indian crinoids 

 and has brought order out of the chaos in which Hartlaub has 

 left the subject. 



The specimens in the Iowa collection agree well with each 

 other and with the description of Miiller 's type so there is no 

 reason to doubt their identity. They were all taken on the 

 Pentacrinus ground, off Havana, and are for the most part 

 rather badly broken. Most of the specimens are now quite 

 white, but a fev/ are distinctly light brown and one is evidently 

 somewhat purple, especially on the arm-bases. In the ''Narra- 

 tive" (p. 75), Professor Nutting says: "Bright yellow Coma- 

 tulse were fairly abundant and white or nearly white Coma- 

 tulae were also secured at this place" (i.e. the Pentacrinus 

 ground). Again (p. 75), he says: "Besides the Pentacrini, a 

 number of species of Comatulee, including several Actinometra, 

 served to enlarge our series of crinoids." There are 5 species 

 of comatulids in the collection sent me, which were taken on the 

 Pentacrinus ground, but Comactinia echinoptera is the only one 

 of which more than two specimens occur. It seems likely that 

 this is the species of Actinometra to which he refers and also 



