193 
FEATHER-STARS, RECENT AND FOSSIL. 
By P. HERBERT CARPENTER, M.A., 
Assistant Master at Eton College. 
[PLATES V. AND VI.] 
T HE Comatulce , or Feather-Stars, have long been known as 
among the most beautiful and interesting of tbe inhabit- 
ants of tbe shallow water round our coasts. They are found in 
all parts of tbe world, and at all depths down to 2900 fathoms. 
The Arctic Expedition of 1875-76 dredged two species in 
Kennedy Channel, above 80° N. Lat. One at least of these is 
common in the seas of Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, while a 
closely allied form was obtained by the Challenger at Heard 
Island in the Southern Sea. They are largest and most varied 
in the tropics, especially in the shallow water about the Philip- 
pine Islands and in the Malay Archipelago. At great depths 
they are much dwarfed, and at the same time somewhat rare, 
the Challenger having met with them but seven times at depths 
exceeding 1000 fathoms. 
The Comatulce belong to the Crinoidea , which is a very well- 
defined class of the great sub-kingdom Echinodermata, differ- 
ing from the other members of the group, e. g ., the Starfishes, 
Sea-Urchins, and Sea- Cucumbers, by various peculiarities.* 
While the Starfishes and Urchins crawl about mouth down- 
wards on the sea-bed, by the aid of numerous sucking feet, the 
Crinoids remain more or less fixed in one spot, lying on their 
backs or growing on stalks, with the mouth upwards. Their arms 
which may be from five to about two hundred in number, are 
fringed by small appendages, the pinnules (Pl. YI. figs. 1, 2 
which alternate on opposite sides of each arm, and give rise 
to the appearance which is denoted by the name Feather-Star. 
The arms may be more or less completely extended, or one or 
more of them may be curved inwards over the mouth ; but 
* Compare 'Notes on the Opliiurans, or the Sand and Brittle Stars/ by 
Trot. Duncan, F.R.S., Pop. Set. Review, N. S. yol. ii. (1878) pp. 339, 342. 
NEW SERIES, VOL. IV. NO. XV. O 
